The Razor's Edge
by The Smoose
Summary: Tony and Pepper go way back. After 16 years, she's back in his life and has no idea of his...extra curricular's. Set after IM2. IM1: Tony never revealed himself. IM2: Everything but Vanko happened. Finally updated after like three years. Oops.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing and no one.

This is a re-write of something I posted a bit ago but thought it could do with a tweak. Turns out the tweak was a complete re-model. That was fun. I wanted to delve more into Tony's background, so many thanks to the various websites I used for reference. Apologies to Toyota. Taking in recent events, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity, I'm sure you understand.

I've made Tony 21 in this, and Pepper is 18, as is Rhodey. This is because I was writing under the impression that Tony was 21 when his parents died. Then I read he was 17 and I really didn't fancy re-re-writing this. I don't pretend to know anything about the comics as I was only little when I last read them. Everything I've written is either movie knowledge or through the interwebz.

Last thing, I promise – if you haven't had the pleasure of listening to the piece of music named below, I strongly suggest you do so. I hadn't listened to it for about a year, and I sobbed like a frigging baby after hearing it again. Especially whilst writing Tony's bit.

**Edit:** For some reason this deleted itself...I haven't changed anything.

* * *

Haarlemmermeer, Amsterdam, 1994

Virginia Potts stood in the middle of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, hand luggage at her feet, staring up at the departures board, where the word 'Delayed' was flashing at her in bright green lettering. Her flight to London had been scheduled to leave a half hour ago, and then the oh-so cheerful Dutch woman had announced over the tannoy that 'the 4:23am flight to London Heathrow has been delayed due to a technical problem', so here she was, glaring at the large black board, willing the flashing words to change to 'Boarding'. When she realised this wasn't going to work she sighed and made her way to the phone booths on the far wall. After spending a frustratingly long amount of time trying to figure out the international dialling sequence, she managed to get through to America.

"Hello?" a sleepy voice answered from the other end of the line.

"Hey, Carrie, it's Ginny." Virginia tucked the phone under her ear and against her shoulder so she could unzip her bag and withdraw her ticket.

"Ginny! Wow, what time is it there? I just got up – hey, wait a sec, shouldn't you be on a plane right now?" there was a gasp and the sound of the phone being adjusted. "You can't use cell phones on aeroplanes!"

Virginia held the phone away from her ear slightly and winced. "I don't have a cell phone; I'm still in the airport. My flight's been delayed for some reason, I was just calling because I'm probably going to miss my connecting flight in London, and seeing as how you're picking me up when I land, I thought you might like to know."

"Oh." Carrie said. "Well, do you have any idea what time you'll be getting here for?" Virginia heard the sound of rustling paper and assumed her friend was getting ready to jot information down.

"Not a clue." She sighed. "I'm going to go back to the information desk as soon as I hang up." She glanced at her tickets and made sure her passport was in easy reach.

"Well, ok, just call me when you get to London and we'll arrange pick up." Carrie said through a yawn, clicking a pen quickly.

"How about this," Virginia said, trying to stop her own yawn. "I'll make my own way to your house in case I haven't got time to call you between flights, but if I do have time, I'll call and we'll sort it out then."

Carrie made a thoughtful noise down the phone. "Well, it's going to take about an hour to get to Palm Beach and we'll be leaving at around 5pm, so you'll be cutting it real close."

Virginia sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Look, it only takes about twenty minutes' tops to get to Westchester from the airport so to get to your house won't take much longer. If worst comes to worst I'll rent a car and drive to the party myself."

"You sure?" Carrie seemed to brighten up at this. 'Typical' thought Virginia.

"Yeah, sure, you got the address?"

"You know, if you had a cell phone I could just SMS you the address." Carrie sighed and Virginia heard more rustling.

She leant heavily on the edge of the phone booth and held back her own exhale. "They'll soon go out of fashion; you won't catch me with one."

"Whatever, you got something to write this down with?"

After a few more transactions and a double checking of the address Carrie had given, Virginia made her way to the information desk to enquire about her flight. Turned out that the technical problem had been something to do with the fuelling system and the woman behind the desk told her that it would take about an hour to fuel properly but that the plane would be boarding in twenty minutes. Virginia thanked the woman and then asked if there was somewhere she could buy a drink. After receiving directions, she thanked the woman once again and set off to the staircase that would lead her to a shop.

She plodded around the deserted shop for a while; grateful that she had eaten a large breakfast before she left the hotel seeing as all that the airport had to offer was biscuits and yogurt. She picked herself a bottle of water and made her way to the checkout. The cashier was behind the desk, bringing in what appeared to be a delivery of newspapers. Virginia knew a little Dutch, enough to get her around Amsterdam for three days, but she really wanted to find out what was going on in the world. Luckily enough, the airport did cater for its English speaking tourists and had a very small stack of translated newspapers. With her purchases in hand, she made her way back downstairs and sat down just in front of the departures board. She noticed happily that her flight now read 'On Time'. Granted, it had a different departure time, but it was a victory none the less.

She took a sip of her water, tightened the lid and placed it in her duffle bag, before reaching for the paper. Death. Destruction. Sport. 'Well, this was a good idea' Virginia thought to herself as her inner geek turned to the business section. One sub heading jumped out at her before she had even looked at the page properly; _TRAGEDY AT STARK INDUSTRIES – pg 17_.

Stark...Stark...she had heard that name before. Intrigued, she turned back to the page the article had indicated. It wasn't a large article, it barely covered half the page, and even half of the entire article was made up of – ah yes, Howard Stark. She knew she recognized the name; they had studied his work on the Manhattan Project in History for one semester last year. Howard Stark was an inventor, a brilliant thinker and, most importantly to some, an extremely rich man. Or at least, he had been.

_FALL OF A TITAN_

_By Andrew Finnegan_

_Yesterday afternoon, the funeral of Howard and Maria Stark took place at Marble Cemetery, New York, after a fatal car accident last week. The couple were driving back to their home in Long Island from one of the popular Oriental restaurants near Columbus Park, when it is thought that the brakes on their car, a 1993 Toyota Aristo, failed and the car crashed into the concrete lane divider. No one else was injured and there is no suspicion of foul play, however there will be an investigation into an apparent brake fault with some Toyota cars. It was rumoured that Stark's life-long friend and CFO, Obadiah Stane, would take over running of the company, but a statement released by the Board of Directors last night reveals that Stark's son, Anthony, 21, will succeed him as Chief Executive Officer. It is yet unknown whether Stane will petition this._

_Stark Industries__was founded by Isaac Stark Sr in the 19th century and-_

"This is the boarding call for flight B65798 to London, England. Seats one through one-hundred please go to gate seven, thank you."

Virginia jolted as the man's voice boomed over the tannoy and she scrambled around for her belongings. She was seat number thirty-four. She crammed the paper into her bag and set off for gate seven.

The flight to London went without a problem; they even made it there ten minutes before they should have done. That didn't really aid Virginia though as she then had over an hour to wait for her next flight. She used the time to call Carrie and tell her not to wait as her flight wouldn't be getting anywhere near Miami until six. She got herself a decent (for an airport) meal, thinking that a graduation party would probably have more alcohol than food and then got on her last plane back to the USA.

'Never again' Virginia thought as she collected her baggage from the carousel, finally in Miami, 'never again will I agree to go to a party after being awake since 2am and flying over four thousand miles.' Now carrying a large suitcase (God bless whoever thought it a good idea to put wheels on the bottom of these things) as well as her duffel, she trudged to the Rent-A-Car desk and restrained herself from beating the smile off the far too cheerful man behind it.

"Good evening Miss, how can I help you?" he said perkily.

Virginia winced internally. "I need to rent a car." She said with as much of a 'well wasn't that obvious' tone as she could.

"Certainly." The chipper employee replied. He then proceeded to outline a lot of really boring and fairly irritating policies and procedures before asking her for some ID. Once he'd studiously examined her driver's licence, he handed over a brochure of the cars they had in.

"Most of our younger customers tend to go for the MR2, which is just-"

"No!" Virginia interrupted the man, who gave her an odd look. "No, I, uh...anything but a Toyota." She smiled stupidly and looked back at the brochure. "How about this Audi?"

Twenty minutes later, she was winging her way along the I-75 in a bright red Audi 80. It wasn't as cheap as she'd have liked, but seeing as her only other choices were Toyota's, a Dodge Ram or a Chevy Blazer, she felt this at least would both get her there safely and not make her look like she'd come straight from a Rodeo. She'd called Carrie's house from the Rent-A-Car desk to make sure she was heading straight to the party, and judging by the endless ringing she was greeted with, Carrie had indeed left. So here she was, hunched over the steering wheel watching for a sign indicating the direction of Fort Lauderdale, wondering if she could stay awake long enough to make it all the way to Palm Beach, let alone get through the party.

* * *

The phone rang for perhaps the eighteenth time in the last hour. Most of the calls were being handled by various members of staff Obadiah had hired for this specific purpose, and for that Tony was grateful, but a handful of calls were breaking through to the house's main phone line as the sheer volume of them completely swamped the staff. Tony just let it ring; gazing blankly at the open sheet music on the stand atop the piano he was currently seated at. It was still at the same page he'd left it on little less than a year ago, one of the hardest pieces in the book. His mother had been teaching him to play since he was five, and he was damn good at it, but he'd found over the past two or three years, especially since MIT, he'd had little time to indulge in such things. Things that didn't involve engines, mass amounts of alcohol, or scantily clad women.

He regretted that now.

He slowly removed the book from its stand and stood up to lift the seat of the piano bench. Placing the book in the space underneath, he took out a rather worn copy of Philip Glass scores and propped it gently into the cradle. His mother had told him frequently that the man was the reason God had invented pianos, and as such, Tony had been taught most of her favourite pieces before he'd even opened a learner's guide. He flipped carefully through the book until he got to Metamorphosis, and then stopped flipping at Two. He too favoured this particular piece. It was odd, it had the ability to both sadden and amuse you in one go. His mother had always said that this song, in her opinion, represented life. Its ups and downs, they dramatic way it switches from sad to almost excitable. She had told him once that no matter what the situation, he should always soldier on til the end, because just like the music, life can change for the better in a heartbeat. 'Take the good with the bad, Anthony, and it will always work out.'

In pianist terms, it was quite advanced, more so towards the middle and end, but Tony had long since mastered it. He had only really taken the book out through habit. His mother had always told him that no matter how good he got, he'd be a fool to attempt any piece without a score in front of him to reference.

He cracked his knuckles, glanced briefly at the sheet music to jog his memory, and began to play. As soon as his fingers hit the keys, it was as if a weight had been lifted slightly from his shoulders. Odd, he thought, given the rather poignant intro. He played flawlessly, as if he'd never stopped, not even taking a second glance at the book in front of him. He made it through the first set of faster notes, but on the second set he lost his count and faltered, the jumble of mismatched notes slamming through the perfect harmony like a sledgehammer. He tried again, but it seemed that lack of practise had the better of him. When, after a third attempt, he still could not crack it, he lost his temper, slamming the palm of his hand into the ivory and backhanding the book and its stand off the piano and across the floor. The metal stand clanged horribly across the solid pine floor and came to a stop against the cream leather of the couch at the other side of the room, but the book, worn with age, span away from Tony, its pages separating from the spine and dropping ominously to the floor, falling open at the same score he'd just attempted. The cover fluttered to a stop a foot away from it. Tony stared at the broken book and an immediate feeling of guilt washed over him.

And then the phone rang, and his last nerve snapped. He threw himself at the phone and wrenched it off its cradle.

"What? What do you people want from me?" he yelled down the receiver. Whoever it was remained silent, which only angered Tony more. "So now you shut up? When I want to be left alone I can't get a minute's peace, and now I've actually acknowledged one of you snivelling reporters who deem it totally appropriate to constantly disrupt my life, you clam up? Well how's this for a headline, leave me the _fuck_ alone!" he slammed the phone back down, and then for good measure, picked it up and launched it at the wall, yanking it out from the wall connection in the process.

"Tony?" the voice made Tony spin around to come face to face with a tall black man, dressed in a smart blue shirt and jeans. "Shit, Tony, what did the phone do?"

"Not now Rhodey." Tony ran a hand through his hair and over his face, trying to clear his head.

"Come on, man." Rhodey walked up to him and leant against the arm of the couch, observing the wreckage. "I know it's hard for you, but your parents wouldn't have wanted you to stay cooped up all this time."

"Oh you know what they'd have wanted do you?" Tony said angrily. "So, they wanted to die and for me not to mourn, is that it?"

"Don't be stupid, it's natural to mourn them." Rhodey snapped back. He knew how to handle Tony, and tough love was the key to solving this. "I'm just saying they'd want you to go on as normal as quick as possible." He folded his arms across his chest as Tony remained silent. "Look, I'm going to a graduation party tonight in Palm Beach, I want you to come with me-"

"Rhodey, for fuck sake, you think I want to party right now?" Tony looked furious. "My parents just fucking died, I buried them this morning, would they want me to celebrate?" he turned on his heel and walked back over to the piano, perching on the bench and flipping the key cover down to lean his elbows on it, head in his hands.

"Maybe not, but they sure as hell wouldn't want you to be miserable." Rhodey said. "I've packed you a bag, it's in the car, and if you're not in ten minutes I'm dragging your sorry ass out myself." And with that, he headed out the door the way he had come.

Tony heard the faint click of the front doors closing and raised his head from his hands. He glanced over at the mess he had made and proceeded to retrieve the book stand, placing it back on top of the piano, and then the book itself and its cover. He studied the worn pages of the book, running his fingers over the slightly faded ink, savouring the slight smell that still lingered, that old type of smell that books sometimes carried, letting you know that they'd been used but well taken care of. Until now obviously. He placed the book and cover precariously on the stand.

"Take the good with the bad." He mumbled to himself, before turning and leaving the house.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

Hmm...well, chapter one wasn't very well received I see. It even deleted itself. See, you made it commit suicide because you didn't review. For shame.

I apologise for taking so long with this chapter, but ironically Iron Man distracted me. I downloaded every single comic from Tales of Suspense to Volume 5 so they've been keeping me busy.

This chapter was spurred on by 'Why' by Rascal Flatts.

* * *

After spending a whole extra forty-five minutes driving in the wrong direction, Virginia _finally _made it to the address Carrie had given her. She'd guessed the sort of house she was aiming for when she saw the street name; Washington Road, but when she saw the actual house, she gaped in astonishment. The driveway alone was huge, filled with gravel and complete with a fountain – a friggin' fountain! – in the middle of it, which lead up to a small set of marble steps to the double front doors. Various types of flora and fauna was scattered on each side of the drive and the front door, as were ten or so cars, and a separate gravel pathway led off to the right around to the back of the house, and from the look of things, the beach. There were two rather large garages off to the left, presumably holding the owners cars.

Virginia managed to find a spot to park her car where it would be easy for the other cars to manoeuvre around her, double and triple checked that the car was locked, and made her way up the marble steps and towards the dull thudding of 'Closer' coming from behind the doors. She knocked, waited, and when no one answered, she tried to open it. No joy.

"Great." She sighed. "And this is probably one of those situations a cell phone would be useful for."

She gave the door one last bang before turning back to the car. Just as she reached it, she saw another car coming up the driveway. She pressed herself to the door of her car to let the other get past, but it slowed as it reached her and the window rolled down. A black man of around twenty with a crew cut smiled at her.

"'scuse me, is this Mark's house?" he asked her. Pepper caught a glimpse of another man in the passenger seat as the window rolled completely down.

"I assume so." she said, leaning forward slightly. "I just tried to get it but the door must be locked. You here for the party?"

"Yeah." He put the car into park and nudged the man next to him. "Tony, call Mark's cell, tell him to let us in. He probably can't hear us over the music." He added to Pepper, seeming to ignore Tony's look of pure disgust at his request.

"He's _your_ friend." Tony spat and briskly climbed out of the car, striding up to the house. The black man sighed and got out of the car as well.

"What's with him?" Virginia asked.

The man locked the car and turned to her slowly. "His parents died last week."

Virginia gasped. "Oh, crap, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, seriously," the man said, "if one thing's bound to set him off, it's people feeling sorry for him." he held out a hand to her. "I'm Jim, by the way, Jim Rhodes."

Virginia smiled and took his hand. "Hi, I'm Virginia Potts, but most people who aren't my mother call me Ginny.

"Yo, Rhodey, you coming or what?" Tony called from the front door, which was now open. He didn't wait for an answer, instead heading through the door. Jim sighed and he and Virginia started walking to the house.

"That's Tony." Rhodes mumbled.

Something clicked in Virginia's brain and she spun around. "Tony? As in-"

"Stark? Yeah." Rhodes smiled slightly at the stunned look on her face.

"I just read about him in the paper this morning." She said, wide eyed.

"He's been in the news pretty much constantly for the past week." He sighed slightly and they began walking again. "I've tried to hide the papers and stuff from him, but there's reporters camped outside his parents house, and Obie's not really helping matters."

"Obie?"

"Obadiah Stane." Jim clarified. "He's…well, let's just say he's a little bitter that Tony's taking over the company. He's was pretty convinced Howard would have let Stane have it." He snorted un-amused. "Like he wouldn't leave his own son his company." They reached the front door and Jim held it open for Virginia. They stepped inside the foyer and Rhodes glanced around for Tony.

"I bet it's a lot to shoulder for him." Virginia said quietly as they saw him busying himself at the other end of the room where a table was stacked full of beer and other liquor.

"Well, he's gonna have to step up." Jim said. "Last I heard, the Board keeps leaning on him for decisions and it seems as if Obie is running the show." They watched as Tony grabbed two beers and a bottle of what looked like high end scotch and lumbered off, shrugging past the other guests as they stared at him. "I'm worried they're gonna take his side and stop Tony becoming CEO."

"Well it's been a tough month for him." Virginia sympathised.

"That doesn't really matter to the Board though." Rhodes sighed again. "Look, I'm gonna go after him and make sure he behaves himself. It was nice meeting you." He flashed her a quick smile and jogged in the direction Tony had gone.

"Ginny!" Carrie came flying out of an archway to the left and stopped right in front of Virginia. "Hey girl! Glad you made it finally!"

"Hey Carrie." The two friends embraced and Virginia smelled a faint odour of tequila emanating from her. "Wow, did you get dunked in a margarita or something?"

"Body shots." Carrie giggled and pointed over her shoulder to the large kitchen where a group of people were crowded round the granite isle. "You are _so_ doing one."

"Why, has Hell frozen over?" Virginia deadpanned.

"Come _onnnnn_." Carrie begged. "You've got a killer body and there's dozens of horny college boys here that would gladly lick-"

"I'll pass, but thanks." She giggled. "Where's Jake?"

"He's around somewhere." Carrie looked around for her boyfriend and shrugged when she couldn't see him. "Probably off with his Air Force buddies. Oh my God, I totally forgot, Tony _Stark_ is coming! Tony freaking Stark! Ooh, what a b-a-b-e." she spelled out the word letter by letter and stared off dreamily.

"So I've heard." Virginia said. "Hey, listen, where are we sleeping? I don't think I'll last long."

Carrie looked downright offended at this. "Gin, the night is _young_."

"I've been awake for nearly twenty four hours, and travelling for most of that."

"Fine." Carrie sighed. "Well, there's like a million bedrooms in this place but you'll be lucky to find one that's not being used for one reason or another." She smirked when Virginia blushed slightly. "But Jake mentioned something about some cabins on the beach. I don't think many people will be using those, lightweight." She lightly shoved Virginia's shoulder and tugged her towards the kitchen. They skirted around the body shot brigade and headed for what appeared to be the lounge.

"I could drink you under the table any day and you know it." Virginia laughed.

"Well Gin, you're about five rounds behind me." Carrie handed her a cup of…something and clinked her own against it. "So start catching up.

* * *

Tired though she had begun the evening, by one o'clock, Virginia was only just admitting defeat. She'd drunk what felt like half her weight in alcohol, though refused the seven times Carrie tried to convince her to do a body shot in favour of laughing when Jake appeared to drag her off for her own.

The party was still going in full swing and she was just polishing off her third 'Redheaded Slut' when Jim burst in to the room and made a beeline for her when he spotted her.

"Hey Ginny, have you seen Tony around?" he looked around the room as he spoke.

"Umm," Virginia looked around as well. "No, sorry, I haven't seen him all night. Is something wrong?" she asked when Rhodes cursed and ran a hand over his head.

"Kinda." He said loudly over the thudding music. "My sergeant just called, I have to be at base tomorrow, which means I have to leave now."

"Base? Are you in the army?"

"Air Force." Rhodes replied. "Final stage of training starts next week but they want us there early to settle in. Dammit." He pulled out his cell phone and cursed. "My battery's dead. Listen, if you see him, tell him I had to go and I'll pay him back for his cab fare. I'll let Mark know as well."

"Yeah sure." Virginia said. "I'm going to head out to the cabins in a sec so I'll see if he's there."

"Thanks." Rhodes sighed again and dashed back out of the room.

Virginia stood up from the chair she was sitting in, waited for the world to stop tilting, and then made her way to where she had last seen Carrie and Jake out by the pool. There were several people fooling around in the pool (one or two taking it a little further) but she spotted Carrie and hurried over to her. After informing her that she was turning in for the night, Virginia made her way to the quarter mile stretch of beach that was attached to the house and spotted six cabins dotted along the sand.

She tried the first door only to find that it was locked, the second held the same result, the third was open, though heavily occupied. The fourth and fifth she bypassed completely due to the extent of the noise coming from them, which left her the last cabin. She cracked open the door and the first thing she saw was the bed, which was thankfully empty. Sighing with relief, she pushed the door open fully and stepped into the dark room, but stopped short when she noticed a man standing by the window overlooking the ocean, a large bottle, half empty of brown liquid in his hand.

"Ooh, crap, I'm…" the words died in her throat when something on the bed glinted with the light of the moon streaming through the window.

A gun.

"Get out." The man mumbled and lifted the bottle to his lips. When Virginia didn't move, he turned around. She blanched.

"Tony?"

"I said. Get. Out." He said more firmly this time. His eyes were shining slightly and the hand holding the bottle was shaking.

"Tony, just calm down-"

"I just wanna be left alone." He slurred, the anger vanishing from his eyes and replaced with a harrowing sadness. He lifted the bottle to his lips again, took a long gulp and sat on the bed facing away from her. "What's your name?"

"Virginia Potts." She replied timidly, eying the distance between his left hand and the gun on the bed. He chuckled slightly and turned around.

"Potts? Like salt 'n' pepper?"

"If you like." She edged closer to the bed and his smile vanished.

"Well Pepperpot, I've got some business to take care of, so if you don't mind." He waved his bottle towards the door before taking another huge gulp.

"Business involving that gun?" she asked, stepping closer to the bed, but she froze as Tony reached behind him and picked up the offending item.

"What is it to you?" he said with a sharp edge to his voice. Virginia held her hands up.

"I just thought you might wanna talk about it." She perched herself on the opposite side of the bed and turned towards him.

"And why would I wanna talk to you?"

"Because I can be a friend if you need one."

He let out a bark of laughter around the lip of the bottle. "Why the hell would I need another friend? I'm Tony Stark, everyone wants to be my friend, you know?" he turned to her, his eyes reddening again. "I have people in the company going 'Hey Tony, buddy, how's about you make some shiny ass kicking weapons and we'll do brunch', I have Obie doing what is apparently best for me, cos he's my 'friend', I can't even walk down the God-damn street without my 'friends' coming up to me. I have enough 'friends', I just want to be left alone." He drained the bottle and threw it against the wall, making Virginia jump. "I want my mom and dad back." He put his head in his hands as the first sob escaped his lips, the gun pointing up at the ceiling in his left hand.

Virginia took a shaky breath and stood up, circling the bed and sat next to him. He didn't seem to notice until her cool fingers wrapped around the ones holding the gun. He let her take it from him and watched as she placed it on the floor, not looking away from him.

"They weren't supposed to go." He mumbled. "We were gonna stay in and eat, but I was still drunk, so they went out and left me. If I hadn't been drunk, they'd still be here."

"You can't blame yourself Tony, it'll drive you insane."

"But it _is_ my fault." He said pathetically. "They were supposed to still be here, they were supposed to grow old together."

"Tony..." she tentatively placed her hand on his shoulder. "Look, I know you miss them, and it sucks that they can't be here with you, but at least they're together. They'll always be together now." She gave him a small smile. "And anyway, life isn't about growing old, it's about rolling into your grave, leaving behind a ravaged youthful body with a smile and whispering with your last breath 'What a rush...'"

Tony spluttered with laughter and Virginia breathed a sigh of relief. He straightened up slightly and rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hands. "Pretty and smart, nice combo Pepper." His eyes were a bit off focus and she could tell he was severely drunk now.

"Well...

"Seriously, you're stunning." He flashed her a slightly lopsided grin and inched closer.

"Tony, maybe you should-" before she could finish her sentence, Tony lunged forwards and their lips connected. Virginia took his weight with a shock and put her hands on the bed behind her to brace herself. After her brain cleared enough to realise what was going on, she scrambled and dodged out of his way, only to see him slump forward onto the bed, face down.

He was out cold.

She let out a breathy laugh, slightly relieved, and bent down to pick up the gun. It took her a few seconds, but she managed to pull out the magazine, click out the bullets and eject the one in the chamber. She collected everything together, went outside and flung them out as far as she could into the ocean. When she got back to the cabin, Tony was still in the same position she had left him, spread-eagled on the bed. Virginia sighed, grabbed a pillow off the other end of the bed and curled up on the floor, the sounds of Tony's snoring and the lapping waves lulling her to sleep.

The next morning, Tony woke with the sun in his face, searing his corneas. He groaned and rolled over – and right off the bed. Luckily, there was a pillow on the floor. A rather crinkly pillow. Bleary eyed, Tony lifted his head and gazed down. There was a note on the pillow he'd just dived on. He sat up immediately and looked at it.

_Tony,_

_I know things are hard for you right now, and you might think you've disappointed your parents, but there's a lot more to you than that. Don't think about the person you used to be, think about the man you can be. Make them proud._

_Pepper._

Tony scrunched up his face in concentration. Who the hell was Pepper? Had he slept with this woman? Were they even a woman? And what kind of name was Pepper? Was it like Salt 'n' Pepper? Pepper Pot...oh.

"Virginia Potts." He said, surprised at his own memory functioning that quickly. He glanced around the room but so no other sign of her. He folded up the note and shoved it in his pants pocket before carefully heading towards the door and out into the morning sea air. He stumbled back up to the house, rubbing his eyes and saw a few people passed out on various bits of furniture.

"Tony! There you are bro." Mark, a tall bespectacled man with shocking, nearly white, blonde hair, came bounding up to him. "Man, I thought you'd bailed."

"Fell asleep in one of the cabins. Rhodey sill here?"

"Nah dude, his squad had to go back to base this morning so he left last night. He tried to find you but you must've already been out huh?" he smiled.

"Uh, yeah. I didn't really last long. Hey, do you know Pep-uh, Virginia Potts?"

Mark pursed his lips in thought but then shook his head. "Doesn't ring a bell dude, sorry. Hey, you need a lift back to the airport or you good?"

Tony shook his head and flashed a smile back at him. "Nah, I think I'm gonna be alright."

**TBC**

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* * *

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Redheaded Slut: Equal parts Jagermeister, Southern Comfort, Crown Royal & Cranberry vodka. Pour over ice. Another variation is a Lindsay Lohan, just add coke.


	3. Chapter 3

This is where the story starts properly. I've planned everything in my head, whether it turns out that way is a different story. Enjoy!

P.S. I have no idea if I'm naming actual job titles, I'm pretty much just stringing fancy words together and putting them into Wikipedia to see if I get anything. Pretty much the same with the PhD's and whatnot, the furthest I got in education was GCSE's and two failed attempts at college, I have a very limited idea of what comes next in the UK, let alone the US, so just bare with me.

* * *

New York, Manhattan, December 2010

Starbucks. God bless it in all its globalisation glory. You only have to turn a corner and bam! Instant caffeine. Much needed caffeine at that. Virginia was getting sick of the constant travelling, but no one ever said that being the executive assistant to the senior director of a large shipping company was easy. Yes, it was a good job, with a more than decent pay, but she'd now been on the road for an entire week, travelling right across the country for meetings she was fighting to stay awake in. Meetings that probably could have been done via video link should the company ever dare spend money on such 'unnecessary' technology. But until the day that hell froze over, she was resigned to racking up the air miles and attending dull meetings with even duller people.

And good Lord it was cold. Even for New York the weather was biting. The door of the shop opened and a harsh wind rustled its way in. Virginia shivered and wrapped her woollen trench coat round her more securely, reaching for her black coffee (still slightly amazed that such things existed without the need to speak fluent Italian) and taking a long sip, revelling in the tangy burn it brought with it. Her reverie was interrupted by the sharp trill of her cell. Sighing internally, she reached for it on the table in front of her and looked at the caller ID, which brought an audible sigh as she flipped it open.

"Jerry, what can I do for you?" she put her coffee down and reached into her bag for her planner, preparing to take notes.

"Potts, where are you?" came the voice of her colleague. Virginia bit back the tart reply she would have given had the man on the line not been the son of the owner of the company. He held the same position as she did for another board member, yet because of his father, he deemed himself above her, and _boy_ did he show it.

"I'm in New York, I just came out of the Takanashi meeting." She said curtly, tapping her pen on the pad in front of her.

"Great, we need you in Washington by tomorrow morning." He said with an air of distraction, Virginia imagined he was probably preening himself in his computer screen and pretending to work. "There's a 9am meeting and we need you there."

"D.C.? Uh, well-"

"No, the state." Jerry butted in. Virginia paused.

"Excuse me? You want me to fly across the country for a 9am meeting? Jerry, it's half past three in the afternoon now, the flight alone will take around nine hours, that's assuming I can get a direct flight, and who knows how long I'll be waiting for that, it's just not possible." she snapped.

There was a pause on the line and then Jerry sighed dramatically. "See, that kinda creates a problem for us back here Potts. One of our primary buyers could be about to make a huge order, and we need someone down there. If you leave now you could make it." He suggested.

Virginia closed her eyes and shivered again as the door opened. A man and woman brushed past her, talking loudly, making their way towards the counter. "Not to be rude, Jerry, but couldn't you go? Or send someone else? I'm seriously exhausted here, and Colorado's a hell of a lot closer than New York."

She heard Jerry let out a small laugh and could practically see the smug look on his face. "Oh no, I'm needed here Potts, and there's no one else who can go. I suppose I could tell Dad he's giving you too much work…"

"Jerry, we both know the workload isn't the issue here, it's just not humanly possible for people to function on coffee and power naps alone for a week." She looked up as the man who had just walked in laughed loudly and leaned towards the woman behind the counter. The woman standing next to the man rolled her eyes and focused on her handheld.

"Look Potts," Jerry's voice turned domineering. "The bottom line is you're being given a task to do, a task that you are _paid_ to do, and you're telling me you can't do it?"

"No, I'm saying the time frame you're giving me to do it in is ridiculous." Virginia's voice rose.

"So now you're not only unable to do the job, you're criticising it? I think we need to re-evaluate your position here."

"We?" Virginia was in full rant mode now. "Jerry, we hold the same position! You don't have any influence over my job."

Jerry chuckled again. "That's where you're wrong Potts." He said smugly. "I just got promoted to Junior Board Member, so I have _major_ influence over your job, and I feel it's within the best interest of the company to…re-evaluate." She could hear the mirth in his voice.

"You arrogant son of a-"

"Now, now, none of that." Jerry tutted. "Tell you what, you make it to the Washington meeting by nine tomorrow morning, and we'll forget this whole conversation, but should you be unable to make it…" he left the sentence hanging open ominously.

"Jerry, I-"

"Let me know how it goes." He sang cheerily before hanging up. Virginia's mouth hung open as she snapped her phone shut. She glared at it angrily before dropping it onto the table and shoving her pen and planner back into her bag. She drained what was left of her coffee and stood up abruptly.

"Stupid asshole." She muttered and turned towards the door, bumping into someone in the process.

"Hey now, what did I do?" a deep, amused voice said close to her left cheek. She looked up briefly and recognised him as the man who been flirting with the waitress earlier.

"Sorry, I didn't mean you." She flashed a small smile and backed out of the front doors, walking down the street towards the hotel she had booked for the night to collect her luggage and get the hell back to the airport.

"You do realise you're late don't you?" the same voice from the coffee shop came from behind her and she stopped walking, turning towards the man.

"Excuse me?" she looked incredulously at the jovial looking stranger as he jogged up to her. He had shaggy brown, almost black hair, chocolate brown eyes and the weirdest goatee she'd ever seen, it flicked up oddly just past the mouth. Something in the way the man's mouth quirked in his smile made something flicker in Virginia's memory.

"You heard me." He practically beamed at her. "You were supposed to meet me for our date."

Virginia shook her head. "I think you have me confused with someone else." She turned around again but the man jumped around her.

"Oh no, I'm definitely thinking of you." He winked at her.

"Well, would you mind doing your thinking someplace else? I'm kind of in a rush." She tried stepping around him but he dodged with her.

"I know, 'cos you're running late for our date. Hey, that rhymes." He was still smiling confidently but Virginia's patience was waning.

"Are you through?"

"No," he chuckled. "Give me the God-damn time of day will you?"

That did it. "Oh, I'm sorry, was I not paying enough attention to you? Must have something to do with my entire career being on the line which can only be salvaged by me getting to the airport within the next hour, something I apparently can't do due to the abnormally large douche currently standing in front of me. Is there anything else I can do for you today?"

The man remained silent, something Virginia thought wise.

"Fantastic." She spat and bustled around him, continuing down the street.

"Ok, ok, look." The man caught up to her again, coming to a stop in front of her and holding his hands up in surrender. "That was a joke, clearly a very bad one." He smiled _that_ smile again. "Maybe I should start over, I'm-"

"Mr. Stark! What the hell are you doing?"

Virginia gaped in shock as a rather stunning brunette ran up to them (in itself a miraculous feat given the heels the woman was sporting) holding two take out cups.

"Relax Natalie, I'm just talking to my friend here." He relieved the woman of one of the cups when she stopped.

"You're Tony Stark." Virginia muttered, more a statement than a question. Tony's smile widened and Natalie rolled her eyes again.

"Ah, so you know who I am, it appears it's only me who's left in the dark." He leered at her over the lip of his coffee cup.

"We've met before." She mumbled. She couldn't take her eyes off him now, and she was surprised she hadn't recognised him before, the only thing that had really changed was a degree more facial hair.

"We have?" his entire expression had changed to one of nervousness again and she smiled kindly at him.

"You probably won't remember, you were really drunk." She smirked even more as fear flashed before his eyes.

"Uh…"

"Maybe we should start over," she held out her hand. "I'm Virginia Potts."

Tony's brow creased as he took her hand. "Potts, that's an unusual name." he said. "Kinda like…" his face slackened somewhat and his grip on Virginia's hand tightened.

"Tony?" Natalie looked slightly concerned at the look on his face.

"Jesus, Pepper?" Tony all but whispered her name. Virginia was genuinely shocked he remembered her after all this time, but she nodded.

"Yeah, it's me, it's good to see you Tony." He was still holding her hand in a death grip and she opened her mouth to say something else, but before she could utter a single syllable, Tony had yanked her into his arms and span her around, nearly knocking Natalie over in the process.

"I can't believe it!" he laughed loudly. "It's actually you, this is unreal." He placed her gently back on the ground, hands on her waist, and stared at her, a huge smile on his face. "I can't believe it." He repeated. "I can't believe I didn't recognise you the minute I saw you. You haven't changed one bit."

"As fun as this little reunion is, we really have to get going Mr. Stark." Natalie said. "You've got a meeting with the board about Hammer industries and-"

"Natalie," Tony interrupted her. "I'm going to need the rest of the day off. Make it so." He wafted a hand at her, taking his eyes off Pepper briefly.

"Mr. Stark, not only has this meeting been rescheduled four times, but Director Fury-"

"Fury can shove it up his ass for all I care." He spat at the brunette.

"Tony, I don't want to disrupt your day." Pepper interjected. Tony's head snapped towards her.

"Hey, you're not interrupting anything. Nat," he turned to Natalie again. "Re-arrange the meeting, tell the board…well, tell them what you usually tell them, and the team can handle anything else that pops up."

"Stark, I really think-"

"Natalie, I haven't seen this woman," he gestured at Pepper. "for over sixteen years, and she's the reason I'm able to disrupt your entire schedule today, so please, I'm actually begging you here, just let me have today."

"Tony, honestly, I'm actually on my way to Washington right now, so I have to go-"

"Nonsense, I'll give you a ride."

Pepper raised her eyebrows. "You'll give me a ride?"

"Ya-huh." He bit his bottom lip and grinned. "Private jet. I can get you there in...three hours, tops." He watched her as she contemplated this and then looked at Natalie. "Get the jet ready for seven."

Still looking slightly enraged, Natalie exhaled heavily and held her phone up to her ear, presumably calling the pilot. "Fine, do what you want, but don't expect me to have your back when Fury finds out." And with that, she turned back towards the Starbucks, leaving Tony and Pepper alone.

"Sorry about that." Tony chuckled. "Natalie can be a bit...pushy, sometimes. Likes to get things done on time."

"You didn't have to do that you know." She smirked at him.

"Nonsense." He said again. "It's the least I could do. Now," he clapped his hands together and beamed. "I could do with some food."

* * *

They decided to dine in the restaurant inside Pepper's hotel as they didn't really have time to go anywhere else. While they waited for their food, they chatted and caught up on each other's lives.

Pepper had come away from education at the age of 26 with a PhD in Business Management from the University of Chicago, and had immediately been recruited by Ploughman & Creed, which was essentially a glorified delivery company based in Boston. They specialised in 'national and international product transference' and she had been employed as a secretary in their Colorado office. Not the most ambitious start to her working life, but a job was a job. She quickly made a name for herself within the company and steadily climbed the career ladder to where she was now.

Tony had taken the reigns of Stark Industries like a pro, continuing his father's legacy in all areas of technological development, and up until two years ago he'd still been making weapons. He was very brief on the details, all he'd said on the matter was he'd had his eyes opened during his kidnapping. He wasn't very detailed about that either, but there was very little left to cover that the media hadn't got down at the time. When she'd asked about the mysterious Iron Man, he'd barely even bullet pointed, but again, most of the relevant information could be found in the media. She knew that Iron Man was, for lack of a better title, Tony's unofficial bodyguard, or at least was an associate of his. She knew there was a lot of conspiracy theories floating around concerning the Stark Expo the previous year, but she didn't bank on getting much more out of him than already existed, so she didn't bother, instead sympathising softly when he spoke briefly of Obadiah's death.

"So, you never told me what got you all hot and bothered earlier." He said, not looking at her. Pepper got the impression he was trying to change the subject, but she let it slide.

"Oh God, don't even get me started." She laughed mirthlessly and began to tell Tony all about the past week of travelling, Jerry, and why she had to go to Washington. By the time she'd finished her story, Tony looked horrified.

"What the hell? That's ridiculous!" he exclaimed.

"That's what I said." She agreed. "But, you know, he's the bosses son so..." she shrugged and stared at her coffee. Her words seemed to anger Tony even more.

"What...no, Pepper, you can't let people treat you like that."

Pepper looked up, swirling the coffee remaining in her cup around the bottom. "It's not like I have a choice Tony. There's not a lot of demand for my career track at the minute unless I take a humungous pay cut, and if I don't go to Washington I'll more than likely get fired so that'll make looking for a job even harder, what else can I do?" she reached into her bag for her cell phone to check the time and sighed as their waiter came over and placed a small tray with their receipt on the table. "It's almost six, we should probably get a move on." She swapped her cell for her purse and reached for the bill.

"I've got it." Tony said sharply. Pepper shook her head.

"No, it's on me, seeing as I assaulted you earlier." She pursed her lips in amusement.

"What?" Tony shot her a confused look and then saw her purse. "Oh, no, not that. Well, yeah, that too," he pulled the bill towards himself and reached for his wallet. "but I meant I've got a solution for your work problem."

"And what would that be?" she asked, reluctantly dropping her purse back into her bag and folding her arms on the table.

"Come work for me." Tony tossed a black credit card onto the tray and crossed his own arms smugly. Pepper stared at him.

"Run that by me again?" she leaned forwards slightly and inhaled sharply when Tony did the same.

"Come on Pepper, it's a great idea. I'm actually in need of someone to handle admin at the office, you're more than qualified. The pay is _more_ than fantastical, and I'm not as much of a douche as Jerry sounds!" he threw his arms up and grinned. "It's perfect."

"Tony," she sighed but couldn't help smiling at his excited demeanour. "I live in Colorado, your office is in LA."

"So you'll move to LA, come on, it's not like the weather could be much worse. Ok, fine, we do have the occasional earthquake, but less people die of being hit by lightening, and I don't think that's a risk you can take." He nodded affirmatively and thanked the waiter as he came back and took the bill with him.

Pepper stared at Tony and shook her head. "This is crazy. I mean, we barely know each other and you're offering me a job."

Tony scrunched his eyebrows together. "Pepper, we've known each other for nearly seventeen years."

"Technically, we've known each other properly for around three hours." She smiled at him jokingly. Tony's face became serious and he reached out, taking her hand in his own, much to her surprise.

"Pepper," he said in a low voice, staring her straight in the eye. "if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here today. You saved my life. Is it too much to ask for me to make yours a little easier?"

Well, she thought, how can I say no to that?

**TBC**


	4. Chapter 4

Oh wow, major sorry for the lateness. This chapter did NOT want to be written. That, plus I just discovered the many, _many _Tumblr pages of RDJ.

Thank you to the website Baby Name Genie for supplying me with Daniel Dowling, Alex Fields and Mr. Steven Kimball. This is officially the most research I've done for anything ever. 90% of writing this chapter was searching the net for the correct information!

* * *

A week had gone by since Tony's offer of a job, and in that week Pepper had managed to quit her job (this had included what Tony had dubbed 'a shit scary bitch fit of doom' at Jerry), found somewhere to live in Malibu (after refusing to let Tony buy her a house or move in with him), packed up all her stuff and sent it to the house, and now she was taxiing up the runway at LAX having spent a good part of the morning sitting next to an obnoxiously loud snorer and watching some crappy cheese fest of a movie. As soon as the plane had come to a stop and she was able to retrieve her hand luggage from the overhead storage, her phone rang. She glanced at the caller ID and smirked at the name flashing at her.

"Hello?"

"Pepper! Where are you?" Tony asked excitedly.

"I'm on a plane. Moving day today, remember?" she tucked the phone into the crook of her neck and hurried towards the exit of the plane.

"Of course I remember, I was just wondering if you'd landed yet." There was a lot of noise on the other end of the line and Pepper wondered silently where he was.

"I'm literally stepping off the plane now. I'm about to go and get my luggage." She saw a sign for the baggage claim and headed for it, along with the other passengers.

"Good, good." Tony said distractedly. "Hey, listen, I've got most of your house all set up, furniture in place and what not, I really think you'll like what I've done with the place." She could practically hear the smile on his face.

"That sounds ominous." She replied, only half joking, as she finally reached the baggage claim and waiting in line for her bags to come out.

"I'll have you know that if I hadn't been a genius wunderkind, I so could have delved into interior decorating." Pepper heard a voice over a loudspeaker and a few people laughing.

"Tony, where are you?" she asked. Her bags poked through the little chute at one end of the conveyor belt and she edged forward, ready to grab them.

"Just out and about." He said offhandedly. "So, you got any plans for the day or you just gonna crash when you get home?"

Pepper grabbed her bags, struggling slightly to get them both on one shoulder each and keep her ear to the phone.

"Well," she said when she finally regained her composure and started making her way to the exit. "I've just moved away from the city I spent over a decade of my life and the majority of my friends, to a city where I know a grand total of one person, and from the sounds of it, he's already out raving the night away," she narrowly avoided bumping into an old woman as the crowd spread out to be greeted by their friends and relatives in the arrivals gate. "so it looks like I'll be catching up on Heroes all by myself tonight."

"Well that sucks." Tony sighed. Pepper made her way through the majority of the crowd and headed towards the exit that would lead to the taxi rank. "Hey Potts, there's a woman here that looks just like you from the back."

"Because that's not slightly disturbing." She chuckled. "Listen, I'm about to get into a cab so I'll have to let you go."

"A cab?" Tony sounded outraged. "Hell no, you're not getting a cab."

The 'bing-bong' of the loudspeaker sounded through the airport and the same sound trilled at her through the phone.

"Well I'm open to suggestions. Tony, where did you say you were?"

"Turn around, Potts." He said before he hung up.

Pepper span around and was faced with Tony standing five feet behind her, phone in hand, grinning manically.

"Need a ride?"

With Tony carrying the bags, they made it out to the car, a Bentley Continental GT, and where greeted by a rather burly man dressed in a chauffer's uniform.

"Pepper." Tony turned to her once they had gotten the boot shut and held out a hand to the driver. "This is Happy Hogan, my driver, bodyguard when Iron Man isn't around, and my friend." He patted the man on the back and introduced Pepper.

"Nice to put a face to the name." Happy chuckled gruffly as he shook her hand. "All I've heard for the last week is Pepper Pepper Pep-"

"Alright, _Harold_, I think it's time to go now." Tony said, the tips of his ears slightly red. Happy chuckled again and opened the door for them both before getting in the car himself. Tony coughed awkwardly and motioned for Pepper to get in. She slid in with a small smile gracing her lips, and Tony followed.

"So, wanna check out your new apartment?" Tony asked. "Or maybe go for some dinner first?"

She spotted the small spark in his eyes as he said this and chewed the side of her lip. "Well, how about we go to my apartment and I'll cook us something?" She suggested.

Tony smiled, that same smile from years ago. "That sounds nice." He gave Happy the address and they set off for Pepper's apartment.

"So, you excited about your first day at Stark Enterprises tomorrow?" Tony asked as they settled in for the drive. He leant back into the seat and put his arm over the top of the bench.

"I'd say more nervous than excited." Pepper replied.

"Nervous?"

"Yeah well, I don't want to sound all high school, but what if no one likes me? I mean it's not like what I did at my old job was anything amazing, and now out of the blue you hire me as a Corporate Secretary..." she trailed off looking a little embarrassed. Tony smiled kindly.

"Pepper, you are the most capable, qualified, trustworthy person I've ever met, and you're gonna do great." He winked at her. "Screw what everyone else thinks. You have any problems tomorrow, you come see me, ok?"

Pepper sighed. "But you don't even know me."

"I know enough." He said firmly, his face totally serious. "I know you didn't have to stay with me that night, you could've walked out when I told you to, but you didn't. Everything else is superfluous."

Pepper opened her mouth to say something else, but Tony's phone trilled happily. Tony winced and mumbled an apology before whipping it out of his pocket and answering.

"Yeah? I'm kinda busy right now." He glanced at Pepper and sighed deeply. "No, of course I know how important it is, but that doesn't change the fact that this is voluntary on my part, you came to me." He was silent for a few seconds and Pepper could just make out the angry voice of the other person on the line. Tony glanced at her again, a slight expression of panic in his eyes, but he brushed it away. "No, fine, I'll be right there." He ended the call and groaned with frustration.

"Something wrong?" Pepper asked.

"Kinda." Tony mumbled. "I'm gonna have to skip dinner. I, uh, have a meeting to get to." He smiled apologetically and told Happy to pull over.

"Hey, don't worry about it." Pepper smiled. "Just let me out here and I'll get a cab or-"

"Don't be silly." Tony interrupted. "You think I'd let you haul all your baggage yourself? Happy will take you to your apartment, I'm being picked up." He popped the door open and swung one leg out, still facing Pepper. "Have a nice day at work tomorrow dear." He flashed a grin at her before stepping out of the car and shutting the door.

Happy pulled away from the curb as soon as the door was shut and Pepper span in her seat to watch out of the back window. As the Bentley stopped at a set of lights, she watched as a black H1 Hummer skidded to a halt next to Tony. He yanked the door open and jumped in, the vehicle already moving before the door was shut. It pulled a fairly illegal U-Turn across two lanes of angry traffic and sped off in the opposite direction. Pepper frowned and turned back around.

"Happy?" she leant forwards to address the driver.

"Yes Miss?"

"Um, does he do that a lot? Go for meetings with people who drive military issue Hummers I mean?"

Happy shifted in his seat slightly and glanced at her in the rear view mirror.

"Not as often as they'd like him to, Miss." He said with a slight edge to his voice which led her to believe that the conversation was off limits. This only confused her further, but she didn't want to get in the bad books with the only other friend she had in the entire state, so she let it slide, figuring she could probably ask Tony about it the next day.

Twenty minutes later, Happy was just finishing unloading her bags from the car and helping her to carry them up the small staircase to her apartment. One he had placed her luggage in the living room and given her his cell number 'just in case', Pepper flopped down on to the plush sofa that Tony must have had delivered there and sighed contentedly. Upon opening her eyes again, she took a good hard look around the room and smiled. She'd seen pictures of the apartment but hadn't actually visited the place herself, Tony had instead volunteered to inspect the building top to bottom and had concluded that he approved, as did she. It was...peaceful. Contemporary and yet had a sense of age too.

After contemplating her new living environment, she decided to inspect the rest of it. She moved through each room, scrutinising every little detail, from the colour of the walls to the layout of the new furniture and her own. When she reached the master bedroom (the apartment having two in total) she spotted her bed, neatly made up, a deep blue carpet underneath, and her computer desk, complete with computer off to the side, but there was something else on the desk part above the keyboard drawer.

As she approached the desk, she saw that the mysterious objects on the desk were in fact a laptop, a BlackBerry phone, and a note, which she picked up and scanned.

_Pepper,_

_Welcome home! I've taken the liberty of arranging a few basic bits of furniture around the place (feel free to move them obviously) and I hope you settle in ok._

_As you may notice, I've left you a few presents. The laptop is for work mainly, and the phone is to replace that ancient brick you carry around with you, 'cause what if it dies and I need to contact you or something? You know it makes sense._

_See you tomorrow._

_Tony._

_P.S. I did a few tweaks on your desktop as well. You should really think up a new password, Pepper._

Pepper twisted her mouth in a grin as she finished the letter and picked up her new presents. She then turned her computer on to see exactly what Tony's version of 'tweaks' were.

* * *

As it turned out, Pepper's first day didn't go quite as planned. She'd woken up early enough, but the traffic, combined with not entirely knowing the right direction to Stark Enterprises meant she only just arrived on time. She practically burst through the door at the main reception, making the woman behind the desk jump slightly. She turned to Pepper, her beady bespectacled eyes boring into hers, and Pepper smiled politely.

"Hi, my name's Virginia Potts, It's my first day today and-"

"You'll want to go up to Human Resources and speak to Mr. Folan." The woman at the desk sighed and turned back to whatever she had been doing before Pepper had entered.

"Oh, thanks." Pepper mumbled and then glanced around, looking for a sign to inform her just where Human Resources was. When she saw no such sign, she turned back to the woman who tutted loudly and pointed down the hall, muttering for her to turn right at the end and look for the door marked 'HR Department'.

She thanked the woman, who merely grunted and continued with what she was doing, and Pepper walked swiftly down the hall. She located the door and knocked three times, immediately greeted with a low "Enter."

Turned out that Mr. Folan was even more of a douche than Jerry had been, and Pepper took an instant dislike to him. He was tall and thin, with what she suspected was a toupee perched atop his shiny head, and a moustache so bristly she was convinced he had glued the bottom half of a broom to his upper lip. His suit was far from the right cut for his lanky form (something Pepper had always hated on men) and after taking a short glance at his shoes, she silently bet he was the type of man to buff and polish them at the end of every day.

And it seemed that Peter Folan didn't much care for Pepper either. He gave her an incredibly disdainful look when he mentioned he had received instruction from Tony on how to handle her transfer, as if he heavily disapproved her employment at Stark Enterprises. Luckily, he kept the initial meeting very short, though he informed her that though Mr. Stark had hired her, she was under his purview as he was also her supervisor. That left her with a slight twinge of nervousness, but she pushed it aside as she stepped into the bustling office she would now technically be in charge of. Well, office was the wrong word, seeing as there were around thirty actual offices, so it was more of a corridor. Mr. Folan had escorted her through the building and was now hurriedly ushering her towards _her_ office.

"These are the personal assistants to the Board of Directors." He stated as they walked past. Several heads turned towards her as she scurried past. "Technically, I'm in charge here, but seeing as _Mr. Stark_," he said his name through gritted teeth. "Invented this position for you, that makes you in charge after me." He stopped outside a door and Pepper noticed it had her name on it. "This is your office. The memo has been sent round, but if you want to go introduce yourself to the troops, go ahead." And with that, he was off, re-tracking the steps to his own office.

One he had left, Pepper took a glance around her own office. It was minimalistic, only a desk, computer and chair decorated the room, but she could certainly see potential. She went straight to the chair behind the desk and sat down, basking in its cushiony softness, and nudged the mouse of her computer. The black screen vanished and the Stark Enterprises logo flashed before her, along with a few other icons. She was just about to peruse said icons when a knock on her door startled her. She glanced up and saw a tall, well built man with a shaggy mop of dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes smiling at her.

"Miss Potts? Hi, I'm Daniel Dowling, I'm Mr. Kimball's assistant. Just thought I'd introduce ma'self." His smile widened and he stepped into the room, a slight Dublin accent slipping through the neutral American. Pepper stood up again and approached him, hand outstretched.

"Call me Pepper, please." She smiled and shook the man's hand. "And I have no idea who Mr. Kimball is."

Daniel laughed softly. "He's one of the Outside Directors. He's not in very often, only really for bi annually meetings, so most of the time I'm left all on my ownsome." He feigned a hurt look. "But I soldier on through the rejection." He glanced around her office briefly. Pepper followed his eyes and suppressed a chuckle.

"Yeah, I haven't _quite_ moved in yet, though to be fair I've been in the room for a full three minutes." She shrugged and turned back to Daniel.

"I think it looks grand. Very 'in' right now." He winked at her and smirked.

"I might keep it the way it is then." Pepper returned his grin and turned back to her bag which she'd dumped on the desk. "So, where are you from Daniel? I can hear a little Irish in your accent."

"Hey Pepper, you settling in ok?" Pepper span around as Tony's voice. The smile on her face that had automatically appeared when she heard him quickly disappeared when she saw his face.

"Tony! Oh my God, what happened?" she rushed over to him, brushing past Daniel, and grabbed his head.

Tony winced as Pepper examined the enormous bruise surrounding his right eye and tried to free himself. "Ah, Pep, calm down, it's just-"

"Calm down? Tony, it looks like your eye is about to fall out, what the hell happened?" she repeated. Tony grabbed her hands and held them away from his face.

"It's fine, one of the 'bots threw something at me last night, that's all." He smiled at her and then his eyes flickered to the other man in the room. "Hi."

Daniel paled visibly. "Uh, hello. Sir." He added.

"This is Daniel Dowling, he was just introducing himself to me." Pepper said, taking her eyes off Tony briefly before re-focusing on his eye.

"Oh right, you're Steve's new aide right? Pepper, seriously, I'm fine." He stepped away from the woman, laughing nervously. Daniel fidgeted and cleared his throat.

"Well, you probably wanna get settled, so I'll..." he scurried from the room, Tony giving him a weird look as he went.

"What an odd man." He mumbled.

"Leave him alone, he was just being nice." She stood before him, hands on her hips. "Now about that eye."

Tony raised his hands. "Fine, if you want to discuss it, let's do it over lunch." He picked up her bag and handed it to her, beaming.

Pepper took the bag from him and put it back on the desk. "Tony, I just got here, I can't go to lunch."

"Why not?" Tony pouted.

"For one, it's nine-thirty, and for another, Mr. Folan already hates me."

"Screw Folan." Tony spat. "Though, not literally, because that conjures up some very disturbing mental images...oh God, get them out!" he screwed his eyes shut and swatted at the mental images. When he opened his eyes again, his right looked ever more bloodshot than it had before. Pepper's hand flew up to his face again and he winced at the contact.

"Seriously Tony, I think you should see a doctor about this." Her thumb ghosted over the small wrinkle in the corner of his eye as he smiled.

"Good thing I didn't come in before I put some ice on it then, you'd have dragged me there yourself. Though the thought of you dragging me somewhere does appeal to me..."

Pepper swatted his shoulder with her other hand but couldn't help smiling.

"So, about our date." Tony continued. Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.

"And what date would that be, Mr. Stark?" Tony made an odd noise in the back of his throat.

"Ooh, I do like the formal title." He grinned lecherously. "And I mean our date that you were late for last week."

"I thought we agreed I was the wrong person?"

"Ah, but it turned out you were definitely the right person, ergo; date."

Pepper laughed. "Don't you ever give up?"

Tony shrugged. "You can't fail if you don't give up." He cocked his head to the left and gave her the familiar grin. Pepper sighed and removed her hand from his face.

"Tony..."

"Oh, I'm sorry." An attractive brunette woman was standing in the doorway, eyes wide, trying to look anywhere but at them. "I'll just..."

"It's fine, Alex." Tony said, ducking away from Pepper's hands and walking towards the door. "I was just leaving anyway, apparently sitting in a stuffy crowded office," he gestured around the barren room. "has more appeal than lunch with my handsome self." He span on his heel as he reached the door and pointed to Pepper. "But you're coming to dinner tonight. I'll pick you up at your place at eight." He didn't wait for her answer and instead hurried down the hall.

"I guess you're going to dinner at eight then." The woman named Alex said, mouth turned up into a smile. Pepper chuckled softly and nodded.

"Guess so." she held her hand out to the Alex. "I'm Pepper."

"Alex Fields." Alex replied, shaking Pepper's hand. "So, how long have you and Mr. Stark...known each other." She seemed to be phrasing her question very carefully, something Pepper didn't like the sound of.

"That's a complicated question." Pepper confessed. "Technically I've known him for a week, but we met when I was eighteen."

"Uh huh." Alex hummed. "But he got you a job here, so you must know each other _pretty well_." She was looking at Pepper oddly, as if smug for some reason.

"I'm not entirely sure I know what you're getting at Miss Fields." Pepper said, raising her chin and preparing for battle.

Alex looked at her incredulously and let out a small amused noise. "Oh come on, Tony Stark? Playboy of the Decade? Notorious ladies man, serial polygamist? You're telling me you and he never...bumped uglies?"

Pepper blanched and her jaw dropped in horror. Alex's expression followed suit soon after and she raised a hand to cover her mouth. "Oh God, you've never bumped uglies!" he made a sound as if she was choking. "I am _so_ sorry, the last girl he employed personally, well they...so I just assumed and...I'm going to go die now." She span around and sped out of the office, leaving a completely bewildered and slack jawed Pepper in her wake.

The rest of the day was going to be interesting.

As soon as Daniel left Pepper's office, he went straight to the men's room. People where still arriving into the building so he doubted anyone would be in there, but he still checked every stall. Finding each one empty, he locked the door and turned on one of the taps, just to be sure, before pulling out his cell and dialling a familiar number.

After three rings, the phone was answered.

"I told you never to call me on this number." A gruff voice from the other end of the line came through the earpiece.

Daniel grinned darkly. "Boss, you're gonna be glad I did. There's been a development."

**TBC

* * *

**

Again, sorry for the lateness. I wanted to get this up before I go away on Monday for a week, and there was more of this chapter to be written, but this felt like a good place to end it. Plus, I can expand on the next bit now.


	5. Chapter 5

Someone needs to remove my XBOX from my room. Seriously. That's the only reason I haven't updated sooner. My bad. I'm very easily distracted. Had to get someone to hide the power cable for my XBOX, my Freeview box and my PC's wireless antenna just to get this written.

So, as some of you may know, RDJ was in London from at least the 10th of August. I came home _from _London on the 8th. I MISSED HIM BY TWO DAYS. I hate my life.

P.S. For Pepper's dress, think Cameron Diaz at the end of The Mask. And I've never been to the restaurant mentioned below so I'm going off it's website and my imagination. Finally, my Italian sucks wore than a cheap hooker so for most of the Italian dialogue I'm using an Italian dictionary and basically word for wording it, which is why I've limited it to the odd phrase.

* * *

It was half past seven, and Pepper had no idea what to wear.

She'd barely had a minute to herself the entire day, and when she finally did get a chance to call Tony and ask where they were going, he clammed up, which left Pepper curled up on her couch, makeup done, hair done, bathrobe on and waiting for Tony to literally dress her. She'd just finished the last of the coffee she'd made herself when a knock on the front door startled her. Pulling it open, she saw Tony standing on the landing, smiling and dressed in dark blue jeans that were faded on the thigh and a black polo shirt. His smile grew even wider when he saw what she was wearing.

"I completely approve of you dressing like that more often." He said, wolf whistling. Pepper rolled her eyes and let him inside.

"You didn't tell me where we were going so I couldn't chose an outfit." She explained.

"Well that outfit seems fine to me-"

"Tony." She said his name with a warning tone even he picked up on.

"Ok, ok, it's smart casual, nothing too fancy, but not a shorts and sneakers joint either." He walked forwards into her apartment and headed straight for the couch. "You know, I had a nap on this bad boy when I moved all your stuff in. I think I might have to steal it, comfiest thing I've ever laid on." He shuffled his shoulders back into the pillow on the armrest and sighed contentedly.

"I might take issue with that." Pepper chuckled. "Don't fall asleep, I won't be a minute, just gotta get dressed and then we can go." She turned on her heel and headed down the hall into her bedroom.

"I wouldn't be too long or you might be missing a couch when you come back." He mumbled, eyes slipping closed. He'd just started drifting off when a pillow hit his face.

"I told you not to fall asleep." Pepper chuckled as Tony peeled the pillow off his face.

"Couch's fault, not mine." He said, muffling a yawn.

"Tired?"

"Yeah, late night." He got up and stretched before looking her up and down, smiling wolfishly.

"You approve then?" Pepper asked, looking down at herself. She'd let her hair fall naturally around her shoulders and had donned a slim fitting, long sleeved, black and burgundy striped dress that stopped just below the knee, complete with three inch black stilettos. The latter was doing funny things to Tony's stomach.

"Approve is too lax a word." He managed to croak out.

She bent down to retrieve her earrings from the coffee table and looked up at him. "So what word would you use?"

Tony swallowed and cleared his throat. "I'll tell you when my brain starts working again."

Pepper chuckled and straightened up. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Tony made a derisive snort and held his hand out to her, which she eyed warily. He smiled at her and shook his hand. "I don't bite. At least not on the first date." He added with a wink. Pepper rolled her eyes and took his hand. "There we go." He led her outside to his car and opened the passenger door for her. Once they were both seated, he turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to life.

"Are you ok to drive?" Pepper asked him. Tony scrunched his eyebrows at her.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Your eye." She clarified. "It still looks bad." She restrained herself from touching the wound, but tony just shrugged and pulled onto the road.

"It's fine, Pep. Told you, nothing serious." He glanced at her briefly to flash a smile before re-focusing on the road. "Well, we've got a bit of a drive to the restaurant, so I'm giving you the very rare honour of choosing the radio station." He gestured to the centre console and Pepper blinked at it. There were several buttons and dials on it, none of which looked like they had anything to do with the stereo. Tony, sensing her confusion, smiled and told her to just tell Jarvis which station she wanted.

"Jarvis?" she asked, even more confused.

"Yes, Miss?" a crisp, British voice came from the speaker system and Pepper jumped.

"Jarvis." Tony clarified. "Just A Really Very Intelligent System. He's an AI system I invented myself. Installed him in the house, the cars, the-" he stopped mid sentence. "Well, you get the picture." He cleared his throat and spoke again. "Jarvis, this is Pepper, her word is law, got it?"

"Yes sir." Came the reply. "Would you like me to apply vocal recognition to my central server as well?"

"Basic level only." Tony said. Pepper's gaze flitted between the man and the machine, still extremely confused as to what was happening.

"Task complete." The AI beeped once. "Good evening Miss Potts, which radio station would you like?"

"Umm...KCBS? Please." She added as an afterthought.

"Of course, Miss." Jarvis beeped once more and then Whitesnake blasted through the speakers.

"Volume ten." Tony said and volume lowered to one more acceptable for conversing. "Very good choice of music Potts." He merged onto the PCH and put his foot down, chuckling to himself at the still bemused look on her face.

"So...you have a computer in your car that controls the radio?" she asked, scrutinising the centre console. There were no obvious signs of any external hardware being mounted, just the standard, or what she assumed was standard for an R8 Spyder, stock radio, so he'd either done something with the insidey bits or...oh screw it. It was melting her brain just pondering.

"Oh, he does way more than that." Tony said, suddenly becoming more enthusiastic about the conversation. "He could hack into the White House security feed if I wanted him to." He said smugly. "In this instance, he took a recording of your voice and uploaded it to the central server so you can get into the mansion."

Pepper looked back at the console. "But I can't see any modifications or anything."

"That's the beauty of me." He said as 'Is This Love' came to an end and a news report started.

"Iron Man has once again made his presence known by helping our boys in Afghanistan." the DJ said excitedly. "He assisted a small squadron in the evacuation of a small town East of Kabul and once again saved the day when things got heated. Whoever that guy is, more power to him. Tony Stark is one lucky S.O.B having a superhero for a bodyguard. Now, we got some Billy Joel for ya' after these messages."

As the commercials played, Pepper noticed Tony's hands had tightened on the steering wheel as the DJ had spoken about Iron Man.

"Do you worry about him? When he's away being...Iron Man?" she asked him.

Tony seemed to come out of some sort of daze when she spoke and blinked at her. "Uh...no, not really. I mean, he's more than capable of handling himself." He shrugged and turned back to the road, pulling off the PCH onto the Santa Monica Freeway. "Sometimes I think he needs to do more. When he's out there, I mean."

"He seems to be doing more than enough in my opinion." Pepper sighed. "I mean, to think there's actually a person under all that metal, and the situations he puts himself in." She shook her head. "Unhappy the land that has no heroes."

"No." Tony said. "Unhappy the land that needs them."

The rest of the drive passed in relative silence, occasionally one or both of them would break into song along with the radio, until finally they arrived at the Ago Restaurant. Tony pulled into the parking lot, opened his door and rushed round to Pepper's side to help her out. They walked in together, Pepper's arm wrapped around Tony's, and were immediately greeted by the warm smell of Italian gourmet cooking. A stocky moustachioed man beamed at them as they walked through the door and bounced over to them.

"Antonio! E'stata troppo a lungo." _(Antonio! It's been too long.) _He grabbed Tony's outstretched hand and shook it roughly.

Tony mirrored the other man's smile. "Zio Gualtiero, uh, e' bello vedere ancora una volta." _(Uncle Gualtiero, uh, it's good to see you again.)_

The older man laughed. "Ah, Antonio, your Italian is as bad as it ever was." He let go of Tony's hand and looked at Pepper. "And who is your beautiful friend?"

Pepper blushed furiously and Tony grinned at her. "Uncle Gualtiero, this is Pepper. Pepper, this is Gualtiero Milanesi. He owns the restaurant and he was a friend of my mother's."

"We haven't seen much of Antonio for a while." He shot a scolding eye at Tony and then smiled fondly at Pepper. "But come, I get you a good table." He span on his heel and led them through the crowded restaurant and out onto the courtyard.

"Now, to drink, I bring you some red wine." Gualtiero handed them a menu each and tottered off into the kitchen.

"He seems very friendly." Pepper said after a moment. Tony smiled at her.

"He is." He agreed. "He's always been a good man. He practically raised me as a kid."

"You've known him a long time then?" Pepper laid down her menu to focus on him and he did the same.

"He was my mother's best friend growing up, I've known him since I was born. He would have been my Godfather if Stane hadn't been around." Tony spoke the man's name with a certain bitterness Pepper didn't quite understand, and a silence enveloped them until Gualtiero returned with a bottle of very old red wine. He poured for Pepper first and then moved to Tony, who stopped him.

"Ho installato Zio, ca non è d'accordo con me." _(Not for me Uncle, it doesn't agree with me.)_ He mumbled.

"Qualcosa di più forte?" _(Something stronger?)_ the older man asked.

Tony shook his head. "Fresco succo d'arancia se hai." _(Fresh orange juice if you have it.)_

Gualtiero nodded. "Un momento." _(One moment.)_

"Grazie, Zio." _(Thank you, Uncle.)_ Tony smiled and turned back to his menu, catching Pepper's eye as he did so. "What?" he asked her.

"You." She said. "For someone who apparently speaks very bad Italian, you do it very well."

Tony laughed. "Both Zio and my mom tried teaching me before I went to MIT. I never saw much incentive to carry on the practice but I used to come in here a lot up until last year, and if you want to get on Gualtiero's good side, you learn the language." He chuckled again.

Once Gualtiero brought Tony his orange juice, they ordered their food and Pepper even let Tony order for her.

"You're not drinking." She said after a while. Tony flinched somewhat and shook his head.

"No." he agreed. "I, ah, I haven't since I came back from Afghanistan."

Pepper chewed on her lip. "You don't mind that I-"

"Oh, no, of course not." He smiled reassuringly. "This…it's a personal choice, don't worry about it."

She nodded and took a sip of her wine. "So do you see much of James these days?"

Tony, who had been raising his glass to his lips froze. "James?"

"Yeah, Rhodes? Didn't you arrive with him to that party all those years ago?"

Tony put his glass back down and half smiled, half grimaced. "Yeah, we haven't spoken in over a year. We had a bit of a falling out."

"Oh." Pepper mumbled, wondering just how many more times she could put her foot in her mouth. "What happened?"

Tony shook his head again, silently saying he didn't really want to talk about it. "Let's just say…he took something of mine without my permission."

"Damn." Pepper sighed.

"Yeah." Tony chuckled sadly. "What about your friend? I remember Rhodey saying something the next day about you hanging with someone."

This time it was Pepper that looked uncomfortable. "Kind of the same story, I haven't spoken to Carrie since about three months after that party." She picked up her wine and took a sip. Tony made a motion for her to continue. "Well, we went to different colleges, and while I was away at mine, her mom died. I still didn't have a cell at this point, and my roommate was constantly on the phone, so by the time I got her message it was four weeks later and she couldn't understand why I hadn't been there for her. I tried to explain stuff but…" she trailed off and shrugged sadly. "I lost contact with her years ago so I've never had a chance to try and make things right."

Tony reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "I'm sure she'd listen to you now." But Pepper shook her head. "Hey, come on, I bet if you tried-"

"It's too hard." She said softly. "She was my best friend, Tony, and she just dropped me without even listening. It was hard enough the first time, I don't think I could do it again."

Tony sighed and brought her hand up to gently press his lips to her knuckles. Pepper swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Ah, love birds, your food will get cold!" Gualtiero appeared out of nowhere with two waiters flanking him brandishing dishes. Pepper blushed again and extricated her hand from Tony's and sitting back.

"Smells wonderful, Gualtiero, grazie." He shook the man's hand again and they tucked in.

Over the course of the meal, they settled back into a comfortable, warm atmosphere, chatting about this and that. Tony even tried to teach Pepper a little Italian, with a lot of help from Gualtiero who kept swatting Tony on the back of the head for using the wrong phrasing and grammar.

"You have Italiano blood, Antonio! How can you not know this?" he chuckled when Pepper ended up having better pronunciation than Tony did. "When you have children, you bring them to me to learn, ok?" he didn't wait for either of the baffled adults to reply. "You don't pay tonight, Anthony, but you promise me to bring bella senorita back soon."

"We'll be back, Zio, thank you." Tony said, standing up and shaking the man's hand once more before pulling Pepper's chair out and escorting her out to the car.

The drive back to Pepper's apartment was relatively quiet, punctuated occasionally by Pepper who seemed to have gotten to grips with Jarvis. She was even conversing with him fully.

"I gotta say Tony," she said to him as they pulled up to her building. "That thing is pure genius."

"Yeah, I know." He said smugly, holding the door open for her. "He's gotta be to keep the house in order."

"I can imagine." Pepper chuckled. She stood awkwardly for a minute before Tony cleared his throat.

"Can I walk you up?" he asked. She smiled at his nervousness and nodded.

"Thank you for taking me out tonight." Pepper said as they began the slow walk up the stairs. "It was great meeting your pseudo Uncle, even if he is a little…"

"Overzealous?" Tony supplied. Pepper chuckled.

"Yeah, I'd say that about covered it." They stopped outside her door and she opened the clutch she'd brought with her to fish out her keys.

"Well, that's the Italians for you." He laughed softly. "And extended family. Always out to embarrass you at a moments notice." He leaned against her door and watched her nimble fingers search for her keys. She finally located them and smiled at him.

"So…"

"Yeah." Tony agreed. Pepper fiddled with her keys.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah." Tony said again. He pushed back from the door and stepped forwards slightly, zeroing into her personal space.

She stopped breathing when his hand ran up her arm and trailed it through her hair. He dipped his head so they were nose to nose and his other hand landed on her waist. Closing the gap between them, his lips pressed softly to hers for a moment and he pulled back to gauge her reaction. When he saw nothing adverse, he leant in again with a bit more force, the hand in her hair weaving into the strawberry tresses and cradling the base of her head. Pepper's hands landed on either side of his neck, grasping at the collar of his polo shirt as she pulled him closer. Tony turned them slightly and pressed Pepper up against her door, running his tongue along her bottom lip. The sensation elicited a hum of appreciation from Pepper who opened her mouth to him. The hand wound in her hair moved up to brace Tony against her door as his tongue invaded her mouth. He pressed impossibly closer and Pepper's head dinked against her door.

She froze.

"Tony." She mumbled, slowing the kiss and nudging him away slightly.

"What's wrong?" Tony whispered, backing off and running a hand down her arm.

Pepper shivered slightly. "Umm, I don't think this is a good idea."

Tony's arm stilled. "Uh, ok." He stepped back slightly. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." She insisted. "It's just…" she sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I know this is a shitty line, but I think it'd be best if we just stayed friends."

"Oh." Tony exhaled and pressed his lips together. "Yeah, sure."

"And I know you took me to dinner and everything and got me this job-"

"Pepper…"

"-and I'm sorry if I did anything to lead you on-"

"Potts!" Tony said sharply, shutting Pepper up. "Don't worry about it, ok?" he smiled kindly. "It's fine. Honestly."

"Yeah?"

"Of course." He grinned again. "Friends is good, I need more of those actually." He laughed. Pepper smiled awkwardly. "Look, it's seriously fine Pep. Ok? Probably is best in the long run anyway." He winked. "Thank you for accompanying me for a lovely meal and I'll see you bright and early…well, I'll see you at some point tomorrow anyway."

"Ok." Pepper sighed gratefully. "I'm sorry Tony-"

"You have nothing to be sorry for." He said. "Now go get some sleep."

He watched her until she stepped through her door and heard her lock it before he made his way back down the stairs and into his car. He sat in the drivers seat for a few minutes before shaking his head, revving up the engine and driving away.

And all of this was seen through a pair of binoculars.

* * *

Once again, MAJOR apologies for the immense delay, I just have way too many distractions!


	6. Chapter 6

Okay…well it's been nearly three years, and I thought I'd better update this. Sorry it's short, I'm trying to get back into the flow. But I know now what I want to do with this seeing as I cleaned my room and found the notes I'd written for it, so expect quicker updates!

* * *

Pepper arrived the next morning dreading the day ahead of her. She could see it all being so awkward having turned Tony –her _boss_- down the previous evening, so much so that she could barely get any work done for the majority of the day. She was in the middle of trying to concentrate on the stock invoices in front of her when Alex knocked on her door and walked in.

"Alex." Pepper acknowledged, smiling. "What brings you down here?"

Alex shuffled inside awkwardly and held out a file to her. "Mr Folan wanted me to give you this. And…I just wanted to apologise again for being out of line yesterday, and-"

Pepper held up her hand and sighed. "Don't worry about it, Alex. If Tony's…reputation is to be believed, I understand where the idea came from."

Alex breathed a sigh of relief and smiled back. "Ok, good." She nodded and shoved her hands into her pockets. "So…how was dinner?"

Raising an eyebrow, Pepper smirked and opened the file Alex had handed her. "Dinner was great. We went to this Italian place in Santa Monica that his Uncle owns. It was good to catch up."

Clearly dying to know more, Alex hovered over the desk. "Italian, huh? Sounds…romantic."

Pepper rolled her eyes and looked back up at the young woman in front of her. "Nothing happened, Alex. It was just dinner, that's all. We're friends, ok?"

Realising she'd pushed a little too far, Alex nodded and hurried back out of the door, just in time to bump into Daniel on his way in.

"Someone's in a hurry." He drawled as Alex stepped around him.

"Don't ask about the date." She whispered harshly as she passed, hurrying back down the corridor to her desk. Daniel laughed and stepped inside Pepper's office, closing the door behind him and eliciting a questioning look from Pepper.

"I wanted to talk to you." Daniel said, crossing his arms over his chest and walking up to her desk. Pepper leaned back in her chair and raised her eyebrows. "How was your date?"

"Oh my God." Pepper exhaled heavily and rubbed her forehead. "Why does everyone care so much about what their co-workers get up to?"

Daniel laughed again. "Haven't you ever worked in an office before? This is what we do to pass the time."

Pepper shook her head and smiled at him. "Dinner was fine, it wasn't a date, it was two friends catching up after a seventeen year gap."

"Not a date, huh?" Daniel said, smoothly sauntering around her desk to stand next to her chair, leaning against it. "So I take it you're free for an actual date then?"

Biting her lip, Pepper dragged her gaze over Daniel's form and matched his body language, crossing her arms over her chest. "Depends who's asking."

"Ah, no one really." Daniel sighed. "Just a devilishly handsome and charming Irish rogue. With a Porsche."

Pepper barked out a laugh and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Mmm, well the Porsche does sound interesting."

"Well," Daniel said, shoving himself off the desk and heading back to the door. "The Porsche will be waiting out front after work, maybe it'll see you there?"

Pepper tilted her head, smirking at him. "Maybe it will, maybe it won't."

Daniel laughed again and winked at her before pulling the door open and exiting the office. As he headed back to his own, he pulled out his cell and typed a message as he walked.

_Phase one in motion._

* * *

Tony's house was ridiculous, Pepper thought as she drove slowly up the driveway. Beautiful from an artistic point of view, yes, but ridiculous all the same. It was huge, it had obscure angles, and it had obviously cost him a bomb. If the interior was anything as grand as the exterior, and Pepper suspected it was, she was in for a shock.

After parking at the side of the circular fountain in front of the house, she trotted up the steps and stopped at the front door. She could see a handle on the clear glass door, or even a doorbell for that matter. There was a rectangular pad to the right of the door, and going off her knowledge of action movies, she guessed it must be something to do with fingerprints, and going with her guess, she pressed her palm to it. Blue light flashed immediately below her palm and scanned the surface before a single beep indicated that it had finished.

"Virginia Potts." Jarvis' voice came from the pad. "Please confirm vocal security." And then another beep.

"Um." Pepper blinked, flustered. "Jarvis? It's me? Pepper?" she tried, gazing curiously at the pad. Yet another beep sounded after she'd finished talking and the pad went green.

"Vocal security confirmed." Jarvis said, and the door automatically opened with the sound like air escaping from a vacuum. "Good morning, Miss Potts. There is fresh coffee brewing in the kitchen."

"Thank you, Jarvis." Pepper mumbled, too busy gawking at the interior to Tony's home. She hadn't been wrong when she'd guessed what it would be like – wide open plan spaces, an entire wall of windows showing the coast and ocean, a freaking waterfall in the middle of the staircase. "Wow. Where's Tony?" she asked the AI.

"Mr Stark is still asleep, Miss." Jarvis replied. "However due to the frequency of his nightmares through the night, I doubt he is sleeping heavily."

Pepper frowned at this. She didn't realise he had nightmares, but then again after what he'd been through in Afghanistan…

"Don't tell him I'm here until he wakes up properly." She said, deciding to let him sleep for as long as he could. "I'm just going to get some work done while I wait. Did you say something about coffee earlier?"

It was a good hour and a half before Tony got out of bed and wandered downstairs. Pepper guessed Jarvis must have told him she was there because he was fully dressed, something she doubted very much would have been the case if he was alone.

"Hey, good morning." He greeted, smiling at her as he padded across the marble floor from the stairs. "Or good afternoon. You want a coffee?" he asked. Pepper shook her head and motioned to the one she already had – her second while waiting for him.

"Thanks, but I think if I have any more without food I'll get hyper." She joked, closing her laptop. "Did you sleep okay?"

Tony raised an eyebrow as he poured himself a mug of coffee. "I think Jarvis has been telling tales about me again." He chuckled.

"I'm just being polite." Pepper shrugged, but it wasn't fooling Tony.

"I have nightmares sometimes. About the kidnapping." He said, as if it was nothing. "No big deal. But I slept fine, thank you. Anyway, not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here?" he'd joined her on the couch by this point and gazed over at her laptop and documents. "Please tell me those aren't for me." He whined.

Pepper laughed softly and sighed. "Sorry, Mr Folan needs an answer on these as soon as possible. He literally told me to "do whatever I had to" in order to get you to sign off, and I think he meant it." She shivered. "He's such a creep."

Tony snorted and took the documents from her, glancing at them quickly before frowning. "Steve's not coming back for at least six months." He said. "He wants Daniel to handle all his work. Weird, where the hell has he gone?" he shrugged and quickly signed the document. "Yeah, that's fine, anything else?"

"Nope, all set." Pepper smiled and filed the documents away with her laptop in her bag and picked up her coffee to drain what was left. "I should get back to the office." She stood up, raising an eyebrow when Tony did too.

"You sure you can't stay?" he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes. Pepper smiled wryly and shook her head.

"This is two days in a row now that you've tried to get me to play hookie with you." She said. "And I've only had the job two days!"

Tony rolled his eyes. "Well, lucky for you, the boss likes you, I think you'll be okay." He put on his best puppy dog look. "C'mon, please?"

Pepper sighed dramatically. "I'd love to, but I've gotta get this files back before Folan has a fit, and…" she blushed a little, realising too late how her next words were going to hit him. "And I've got a date later."

If the situation hadn't been so serious, Tony's face going from boyish teasing to looking like he'd been slapped would have been comical. "A date? But…who with?"

"Well, not a _date_, date." She tried to recover. "Daniel asked me out…he's just being friendly." She bit her lip and watched Tony's reaction.

"Huh." He huffed, managing to shrug off the hurt look and smile at her. "Okay, Potts, you win. Off you go." He patted her shoulder once and then bent to grab their mugs, carrying them into the kitchen. Pepper stood awkwardly for a moment before grabbing her bag and hurrying out of the house. For some reason she felt like crying as she got into her car, feeling like she'd betrayed Tony in some way. But they were just friends, she'd managed to convince the both of them that the night before. Did he think she wasn't going to date anyone at all while she worked for him? Had he only hired her because he thought he could get a lay out of it? She shook her head free of those thoughts, dismissing them. Tony had taken her on board to repay the favour she'd accidentally dealt him all those years ago, and definitely something more than sexual tension between them…she didn't want to think about it. They were friends, and that was how it was going to stay. Hopefully.

Tony, meanwhile, was stewing in the kitchen. He was annoyed, mostly because she hadn't wanted to be anything more than friends with him, but even more so that is was that Daniel guy she'd chosen over him. He shook his head and sighed, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Jarvis?" he called out as he walked out of the kitchen and made his way down to the basement. "Tell Natasha I'm on the way to base. I feel like kicking some terrorist ass." He entered his code to open the door to the basement and walked towards the suits of armour displayed around the walls. "Now, however will I choose an outfit?"

* * *

Her date with Daniel had been…nice. A little more fancy than Tony's had been, but missing the warmth of being somewhere friendly. He'd taken her into the heart of the city to a posh French bistro, and while his butchering of the French language had been purely for her benefit to make her laugh, her head wasn't in the game and she'd had to force it.

"Something on your mind?" he asked her as he watched her push her desert around the plate. "Do you not like…whatever the hell that is?"

Pepper smiled and laughed softly, shaking her head. "It's lovely, the whole night's been amazing, it's just…I'm somewhere else tonight. I'm sorry." She sighed. "I should have asked for a rain check for when I can be more focussed."

Daniel wafted his hand at her. "Don't worry yourself, it just means we'll have to have a do-over." He grinned. "Maybe something involving…miniature windmills?" he winked at her. Pepper blushed and ducked her head shyly. "Look, Pepper, the thing that's bothering you, will it get fixed if you fixate over it?"

She shook her head and took a bite of her desert. "No, but-"

"Then maybe…" Daniel reached over the table and took her hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "Maybe try not thinking about it." He smiled.

Pepper sighed again. He was right, she was thinking about something she couldn't fix, about another man, while on a date with him. If anything, it was rude.

"You're right, you're absolutely right." She agreed, smiling at him and placing her fork down. "I'm in the zone now, promise."

"Fantastic." Daniel beamed and was about to open his mouth when his phone buzzed at his hip. "Shite, sorry, I have to take this." He cursed and answered the call. "Aye?"

"How's it going?" an irritated voice came from the other line. "Anything new to report or are you still enjoying yourself on my dime?"

"Ah, alright buddy?" Daniel covered, smiling at Pepper. "I'm actually on a date right now so I can't really talk. Is it quick?"

"Just hurry the fuck up, alright?" the voice sneered. "I want this over with as quickly as possible. I want what's mine." And with that he hung up.

"Not a problem." Daniel muttered into the phone, nodding along. "Yup, well that's fine, I can come round tomorrow? Sorted. See ya tomorrow pal." He pretended to end the call, wincing apologetically at Pepper as he stowed his phone away again. "Sorry about that. A pal of mine wants me to help him shift some furniture tomorrow. Good timing." He chuckled. "Are you about done? I can take you home?"

Pepper nodded and after Daniel had paid, they headed back to his car. He was a perfect gentleman, giving her a kiss on the cheek once he'd dropped her off and waiting until she was inside, like Tony had done, before setting off. This time, she even arranged a second date. Whatever issues Tony had with her dating Daniel, he'd just have to deal with them.


	7. Chapter 7

Sorry it's so short, but the next chapter is where the action starts and it'll be a bit longer, and also a bit sexier ;)

* * *

Tony felt like a bit of an ass the next morning. He'd basically thrown a tantrum because Pepper was dating someone else other than him. Did he expect her to stay single? No, but he sure as hell hadn't thought she'd find someone else so quickly. Maybe it was him. He shook his head free of the thought as he walked into the office, bidding good morning to the receptionist and other staff. They were friends, she'd said that herself, and so what if she wasn't attracted to him, he was lucky to have her in his life.

As long as he didn't screw it up.

The first person he saw when he entered the HR department was Daniel, leaning against Alex's desk and chatting to her. Tony walked straight up to them both and smiled.

"Alex, how's it going?" he asked, not waiting for an answer before turning to Daniel. "I need a word, Mr Dowling, care to join me in Steve's office?"

"Um, sure." Daniel agreed nervously, following him.

Tony led Daniel into Steve's office, closing the door behind them and leaning against the only desk in the room. "You look nervous, Dan." Tony said, pleased that the other man clearly found him intimidating. "Something on your mind?"

Daniel swallowed and straightened himself up a little. "Well, I don't know if you've heard, but Pepper and I are dating. I assume that's why you've brought me in here? To tell me off or something?"

Raising an eyebrow, Tony smiled. "You think that's something I'd do?"

"I don't really care, sir." Daniel said firmly. "We're all grownups, Pepper can make her own decisions and so can I, and that decision is that we're dating."

Tony sighed and looked away for a moment before stepping forwards, towards Daniel. "I actually brought you in here to discuss Steve." He said. "Folan got an email from him yesterday to say he was extending his leave for the next six months, so while he's flourishing you with instructions, you'll be standing in for him. Think that's something you can do?"

Daniel's jaw dropped and he spluttered for a moment. "Mr Stark that's…that's amazing, thank you!" he grinned, delighted.

"Great." Tony said, now standing in front of him. "Now, about Pepper." His face became deadly serious and he stared Daniel right in the eye. "If I even get so much as a whiff of something about you, regarding Pepper or anything else, you are done, understand me? She's a friend, she's important to me, and I don't want to see her hurt." He'd reduced the other man back to a bundle of nervous energy again and Daniel simply nodded, swallowing. "Great." Tony said again, stepping back a little and holding his hand out to shake Daniel's. "Congratulations on your promotion, if only temporarily. Steve must have great faith in you."

Daniel nodded quickly and straightened his suit as Tony stepped back. "I won't disappoint either of you, sir. Thank you again."

"No sweat." Tony said with a sweet smile. "Enjoy the office." And with that he walked out and headed towards Pepper's own office, leaving a seething Daniel behind.

"Fucking asshole." He muttered, heading to Steve's computer and logging in. An email was waiting from his _real_ boss, giving him further instructions, to which he quickly replied with the good news that Tony had bought his story about Steve not returning. "It's only a matter of time, Tony." Daniel sighed to himself.

* * *

"Knock knock." Tony called out as he opened the door to Pepper's office, smiling at her and waving a 'white flag' made from a piece of paper with a pencil punched through it. "I come in peace."

Pepper sighed but smiled back at him. "Well you'd better come in then." She said, laying down her pen. Tony did so, sauntering over to the chair in front of her desk and plonking himself into it.

"I was an ass yesterday." He said. "And yes, maybe a little jealous, but I realise now I shouldn't have thrown a tantrum, so…I'm sorry." He tilted his head. "Forgive me?"

Rolling her eyes, Pepper nodded and reached over to grab the peace flag he'd made. "Seeing as you went to so much effort, I guess I can forgive you."

Tony grinned widely. "Fantastic. And you can let me make it up to you, there's an event I need to go to next Thursday, and I haven't got a…companion." He'd nearly said the word 'date', which under the circumstances probably wasn't the best word to use. "And if I turn up stag, they'll think there's something wrong with me."

Pepper chuckled at this and bit her lip. "I'm sure I can managed to squeeze it in to my hectic schedule." She conceded. "Which reminds me!" she reached over to a stack of paperwork to her right and handed it to Tony. "These are the candidates for the internship that you're offering. I want you to look through them and pick ten."

Gawking at the stack of papers, Tony shook his head. "There's gotta be over a hundred candidates here." He said, flicking through. "Wait, I thought this was the kind of think assistants took care of?"

"Tony, nearly a thousand people applied for the position." Pepper chuckled. "Apparently you're a popular guy to want to work for. Alex and I spent the last two days trimming it down."

Tony grumbled a little and stood up, looking like a child who'd just been told to go to his room. "Now it feels like you should be making this up to me, not the other way around." He winked at her with a smile and then headed to the adjoining door to his office, leaving Pepper rolling her eyes at him.

* * *

The weeks passed quickly, and soon Pepper had reached her six month anniversary, both with Stark Enterprises and with Daniel, and to be frank she was only really happy about one of them. Daniel was lovely, but there were times when she wondered why she'd ever agreed to even date him. He was handsome and kind, sure, but also secretive. Many a time she'd catch him on a phone call, which he'd then proceed to hang up, claiming it was Steve and that he couldn't talk about it. She'd wondered briefly if he was cheating on her, but the sheer amount of time he spent with her disproved that. There was barely a moment where he wasn't with her, at work or at home, he'd practically moved into her apartment and was always visiting her office – surely with his new position he should have so much free time – to the point where she felt smothered.

"This isn't working." She said to him one day after he'd popped by her office for the fourth time, this time with a basket of muffins for her.

"What?" he asked, halfway through unwrapping a muffin.

"Us." She clarified, wincing a little when he looked up at her with a wounded expression. "Look, Daniel, the last six months have been great, but…I need a little space. You're a very loving person, and maybe if my life wasn't so hectic this would have been what I needed, but…I'm sorry."

Daniel's mind was whirring. They were so close to finishing the plan, and she was wrecking it. "But…we were going to go away. Paris, remember? I booked the tickets."

Pepper smiled sadly. "I'll pay you back, I'm really sorry Daniel." She reached out for his hand.

"No, no don't do that." He mumbled, pulling his hand away. "Um…it's fine. Honestly. I get it." He stood up and dropped his half eaten muffin back into the basket. "I guess I'll see you around then." And with that he walked out of her office, heading straight for his own and pulling out his phone.

"You better have some good news for me." The voice on the other end of the phone spat. "This is taking way too long."

Daniel winced and locked his office door. "Not really. I kinda fucked it up."

The voice was silent for a moment but when it did speak, the restraint was evident. "What exactly does that mean?"

"Well, she kind of dumped me. Dumped Daniel I mean." He replied, chewing his lip. "But I can fix it boss, you just need to give me a few more days, and I need to get out of this office."

He could hear the other man breathing deeply down the phone. "Okay, fine. Put phase two in motion, and my God, Shaun, if you fuck this up, you'll wish you hadn't." and with a loud click, the line went dead.

Shaun stowed his phone away and sighed heavily. "Phase two it is."


	8. Chapter 8

More action, more drama...more sexy!

* * *

Pepper's phone rang for the eighth time in the last hour, and for the first time in that hour she had a second free to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Pep!" Tony's chipper voice came through the speaker. "I've called you like, a thousand times. Where've you been?"

Pepper actually paused for a moment to wonder if he was being serious. "Where have I been?" she repeated. "Oddly enough, I've been at the office all day doing my job, which now involves doing Mr Kimball's job seeing as Daniel's disappeared from the face of the planet, and your job seeing as you never show the hell up!"

Tony heard the sound of papers being shuffled angrily and flinched involuntarily. "Daniel didn't turn up again?" he asked. "Where the hell is he? That's three days in a row now, I knew I shouldn't have promoted him."

Pepper sighed and slumped back in her chair, massaging the bridge of her nose to try and stop the impending headache. "He's probably in a huff because we broke up." She mumbled.

"What?" Tony asked. "You broke up? When? Why? What happened? Was he cheating, because I swear to God-?"

"Tony, down boy." Pepper chuckled. "I broke it off with him. He was too constricting, that's all. But it was amicable, he didn't seem too pissed when I did it."

"Well you can't blame the poor guy." Tony said after a moment. "I mean, I know what it's like to be dumped by Pepper Potts."

Pepper rolled her eyes, smiling. "It was hardly dumping, we went on one date." She sighed and looked up as Alex knocked at her door. "Listen, I should go, work's piling up, even Folan is having to do some, it's amazing to see the boss actually working."

"Yes, yes, I get it, I'm a bad boss." Tony replied with a smirk. "How about I make it up to you with a night of home cooked Mexican awesomeness and some equally awesome movies?"

"You can cook? I mean other than toast?" Pepper asked, stunned.

"Hey!" Tony snapped back. "Why does everyone always sound surprised when I say I can cook? I'm an excellent cook!"

Pepper hummed, thinking it over. "What movies have you chosen?"

Tony let out a withering breath and she could practically hear him think his head against the wall. "Jesus, Potts, what's with the third degree?" he asked. "Just come over, I feel like I haven't seen you in a week."

"That's probably because you haven't seen me in a week." She retorted. "Something to do with the workload I'd imagine." She smiled as Tony sighed again. "Relax, I'll be there."

"Excellent!" Tony's tone brightened immediately. "Come over as soon as you finish work."

"Miss Potts?" Alex spoke up, still waiting at Pepper's door.

"See you in a few hours." She said quickly before hanging up. "Sorry, Alex, what's up?"

"Mr Folan wants a quick word about Daniel." The frizzy haired woman told her, a small smirk playing on her lips. "Hot date?" she asked, referring to her phone call.

Pepper stood up and made her way towards Alex. After their awkward start, Alex and Pepper had become friends, occasionally going out for drinks – when Daniel wasn't attached to Pepper's hip that was – and often talking about Tony's old assistants. Pepper had learnt that Tony had been quite the playboy back in his heyday before he'd been kidnapped, and that since his return he'd been seen with a grand total of one woman, and that had been Pepper. While the news had shocked Pepper at first, Alex had read into it as far as she could, to the stage she was drunkenly handing out wedding invites to anyone that would listen.

"Just a quiet night in with a friend." Pepper replied with a similar smirk, ushering Alex out of the office and walking with her down the hallway.

"A Tony Stark shaped friend?" she asked knowingly, to which Pepper raised an eyebrow. "Come on, don't tell me you wouldn't tap that-"

"Okay, I think it's time you went back to work." Pepper said, laughing awkwardly and turning Alex by the shoulders back towards her desk, but Alex dug her heels in.

"In all seriousness, Pepper, he likes you, everyone can see that, and in all the years I've worked here, I've never seen him look at someone the way he looks at you." She gushed, almost like she was living her own fairy tale just by telling the story.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "We're friends, Alex. Friends with a lot of history." She sighed. She'd never told anyone of how she and Tony really met all those years ago, and doubted very much Tony had either. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"But-"

"Alex." Pepper interrupted. "I get it, okay? I know he has feelings for me."

"So why not do something about it?"

"Because!" Pepper spluttered indignantly. "Because we're friends, and it would be awkward and we work together and…what if we broke up? Daniel clearly didn't take it very well."

Alex snorted at this. "Daniel was creepy." She stated. "And besides, none of that stuff matters. You like him, he likes you, stop worrying about every little thing, what if the 'what if's' don't happen?"

Pepper exhaled and searched for words, but when none came, Alex shrugged and walked away, and Pepper stepped into Folan's office.

* * *

"Hola, and welcome to Mexicano El Stark!" Tony exclaimed as he opened the door to Pepper a few hours later. "I'm glad it's you, this is the second time I've opened the door like that, come in and prepare to be amazed." He stepped back and allowed Pepper to walk in, smirking when she squinted.

"Wow." Pepper stuttered, choking a little on the smell of food laden with spice. "Like it spicy, huh?"

"Such an opening." Tony sighed, taking hold of her shoulders from behind and walking her towards the lounge. "You sit there." He said, pushing her gently onto the couch. "And I'll bring your din din's. Get comfortable, put your feet up, make yourself at home yada yada yada." He said, walking back into the kitchen.

"Thank you, kind sir." Pepper said to Tony's retreating back, doing as he'd instructed and removing her shoes from her aching feet, sighing softly as she leant back into the couch.

"Good evening, Miss Potts." Jarvis piped up after a few seconds. Pepper had gotten used to the AI by now, but the disembodied voice would always make her jump slightly, no matter how often she heard it.

"Evening Jarvis." Pepper replied, reaching forward to pick up one of the DVD's Tony had clearly picked out. "How's it going?"

"Very well, thank you." Jarvis said. "And how does this evening find you?"

Pepper smirked, wondering briefly how or even why Tony had programmed Jarvis to be so…normal. "I'm great thanks." She replied. "Looking forward to relaxing this evening."

"Very good." The AI said. "And might I also say you look lovely this evening."

"Oh, I see how it is." Tony said, reappearing from the kitchen. "I disappear for two minutes and Jarvis makes the moves on you."

Pepper laughed softly as Tony handed her a plate of gorgeous smelling Mexican delights. "I was merely complimenting Miss Potts on her choice of attire, sir." Jarvis explained. "I apologise if I was out of line, but in my defence I learn from example." Pepper spluttered at this, glancing at Tony whose mouth was open in a 'did that really just happen' kind of way.

"Ignore him, Jarvis." She chuckled, shifting so Tony could sit down next to her. "He's just jealous."

"Should I be jealous of something that's essentially just a bunch of ones and zeros?" Tony asked, earning a dig in the calf from Pepper's bare foot.

"Shut up and put a movie on, Stark."

Three hours and several platefuls of home cooked Mexican food later, Tony and Pepper sat slouched on his sofa, a respectable amount of room between them, giggling childishly now and then at the movie they were watching. At one point, Tony chuckled through a yawn and stretched his arms up, his shirt slipping a little and revealing a generous portion of skin, and impulsively, Pepper reached over and poked him in the ribs.

Tony squeaked and dropped his arms protectively, his head snapping around to her. Pepper snorted and shrugged, turning back to the TV, but Tony raised an eyebrow and did exactly the same back to her, eliciting a similar squeak and an equally shocked look.

"You threw down the gauntlet, Potts." Tony said with a smirk.

"Oh yeah?" Pepper asked before she tackled him, flinging herself at him and digging her fingers into his ribs as he tipped backwards.

"Oh no you don't!" Tony grunted, grabbing her hands and forcing her back the other way so she was now lying down, Tony knelt in front of her using his other had to tickle her.

"No! Nonononononono! Pepper screeched, laughing manically and flailing as much as she could.

"Regretting that rib jab now, are we?" Tony laughed as well as Pepper continued squirming in his grasp. With one particularly hard kick, her foot caught the knee he was using to support his weigh and it jerked out from under him, causing him to land heavily on top of Pepper. She made a soft huffing noise and stopped laughing, as did Tony. "Oops." Tony said, trying to untangle himself and push up onto his palms. "You okay?"

Pepper smiled softly and nodded, but before he could speak or move another inch, she'd lifted her head from the couch and kissed him. Tony froze as Pepper's lips covered his own, but he couldn't help moving his mouth against hers. When they broke apart, Tony gazed down at her questioningly.

"Friends don't do that." He said hoarsely.

She smiled and bit her lip, raising a hand to his face and stroking his cheek softly. "No, they don't" she mumbled and kissed him again. This time, Tony responded immediately, lowering himself back down and letting his eyes fall closed.

Pepper wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, opening her mouth to him and allowing his tongue entry. He moaned softly and brought his left hand up to graze along her side, supporting himself with his right elbow. Pepper smiled and entwined her fingers in his hair while Tony broke away from her mouth and pressed open mouthed kisses along her jaw and down to her neck, sucking lightly on her soft skin. Pepper gasped and bucked up against him, her nails digging into his skull. Tony chuckled and nipped in the same spot, causing the same reaction.

"Tony…" she groaned, dragging her nails down his chest and under his shirt to his toned stomach. Tony let out a little puff of air against her neck and growled.

"God, Pepper." He rolled his hips against her, his arousal pressing into her thigh. Pepper's hands dropped to his belt and she slipped the tail from the buckle. Tony moved back up to her mouth and urgently captured her lips, simultaneously slipping his hand beneath her blouse and palming her breast. Pepper paused at his zipper as he squeezed softly, grazing his thumb across her nipple. He did it again and she moaned into his mouth.

"Tony, more." She regained the use of her hands and managed to unzip his jeans. Tony removed his hand from her breast and pushed her skirt up as Pepper pushed his jeans down his hips and legs, pooling them at his ankles. With only their underwear separating them, he bucked against her again, his erection pressing teasingly against her core. He slowed the kiss as he rocked against her, trailing his right hand across her stomach to her panties and pulling them down her slender legs, dropping them over the side of the couch. He then moved his hand back beneath her blouse, this time under her bra as she ran her hands down his back over his shirt and into his boxer-briefs, cupping his bottom and pulling his against her wet heat. He stilled froze against her as she pushed the fabric down his legs and softly stroked him.

"Tony?" she mumbled when she saw his eyes had glossed over slightly. "Tony, you with me?" she kissed his chin softly and gently squeezed him. Tony let out a guttural moan and closed his eyes, pressing closer to her.

"I haven't been with anyone for a very long time." He mumbled, swallowing and pressing his forehead against hers. "Not since I came back."

Pepper smiled at this and nuzzled against him, kissing him again. "It's okay." She tugged him closer and he slowly eased himself into her. Pepper's hands moved to his neck, nails gently scratching his skin while Tony's mouth moved back to her neck, nipping and sucking along her collarbone as he filled her. He buried his face into her neck and paused for a second, moving both hands to the globes of her ass, effectively pushing himself deeper and eliciting a small squeak from Pepper After giving her a second to adjust, he withdrew slowly to the tip and pressed back in again, grunting as he did so. Pepper curled her fingers against his broad shoulders, tugging at the fabric of his shirt as he used the same long, slow strokes. She felt his hot breath against her neck and his fingers digging into her bottom and he began to thrust with more force.

Within minutes, Pepper felt the first fluttering of release approaching as Tony continued his languid strokes. She moaned against his ear and mouthed at the lobe, wrapping her legs around his hips to bring him even closer. The extra pressure brought her over the edge and she snapped like a bow string, arching against him and moaning his name softly. Tony turned his head and captured her mouth as she cried out, revelling in the feel of her pulsating around him while she wound down. As soon as she'd calmed, he began thrusting harder and faster, opening his eyes and locking with hers, holding her flush against him so their hips ground together with each thrust. He gasped her name as his own release fluttered in the pit of his stomach but he drove on, determined to bring her into oblivion one last time. He kissed his way along her chest before settling on her right breast, mouthing hotly through the thin fabric of her blouse and bra.

"Oh God, Tony." Pepper moaned as Tony pressed the pad of his right thumb where they were joined, drawing her pleasure out as she came hard yet again. This brought him hurtling along with her and he held himself inside as he finally found release, calling her name. He flopped down on top of her, panting heavily, face buried in her neck as they both wound down, Pepper's fingers skating up and down his sweaty back.

"Stay." He mumbled against her skin, a hot puff of air making her squirm as it hit her ear with his words.

"Okay." She agreed, smiling widely, blinking as Tony heaved himself off her and held his hand out before leading her down the hallway to his bedroom. "I think it's safe to say our friendship is effectively ruined."

* * *

Pepper spent the night with him, but insisted in the morning that she had to go home, go to work, and that he should turn up at some point. "I'll call you later." He'd said before kissing her goodbye, standing naked at the front door. Later seemed to be dragging on and on, however, because it was nearing eight at night and he still hadn't called. She'd thought about calling him, but didn't want to seem like she was waiting for him. Sighing at how complicated it had become between them in such a short period of time, she flopped down onto her couch and flicked on the TV, turning to the news, watching as the first thing that came into view was a piece on Iron Man.

"…the Iron Avenger was seen earlier today in a daring rescue that went wrong when an anti-tank missile hit him head on." Pepper gasped at this and focussed on the TV as footage of the fight appeared. "Iron Man was shot down and we can see from this clip that he landed hard somewhere in the desert. Patrols by both the army and SHIELD, the government agency, have been done, but so far no one has been found. More information on this story as it develops."

She didn't hesitate this time, Pepper grabbed her phone and dialled Tony. Iron Man was a friend of his, and she wanted to make sure Tony was okay, but he didn't pick up. She was half tempted to go round and check on him, but she guessed he was taking out any frustration he had down in his workshop and couldn't hear the phone. She just hoped he wasn't being self-destructive. If he still wasn't answering by tomorrow, she'd go round and check on him, he probably just needed some space. She stayed up a little longer, checking back to the news every now and then to see if there were any other updates, before heading to bed, hoping that whoever Iron Man was, that he was alright.

Morning came on day two, and Pepper found out when she got to work that Tony had left instructions for her for the rest of the week, and that he wasn't coming in having called in sick. Again, she tried calling him but got no reply, but when at lunchtime the discovery of Iron Man's helmet appeared on the news, with no suit or body in sight, she knew she had to go and speak to him. He was probably worried sick, and she couldn't just leave him alone. She got into her car during her lunch hour, and tried one last time to call him before just turning up, and this time he picked up.

"Pep!" he said a little breathlessly. "What's up? Sorry I've been MIA…"

"Don't worry about it." Pepper assured him, silently breathing a sigh of relief at the sound of his voice. "I heard about Iron Man, how are you holding up?"

"Well, you know." He huffed. "He's a big boy, he can take care of himself." Pepper heard a muffled sound and Pepper wondered if he'd suddenly put his hand over the mouthpiece. "Listen, Pep, I gotta go." He said when he came back to the phone.

Pepper blinked, getting steadily more pissed off. "Well, I'm halfway to your place, I was gonna bring lunch-"

"Oh, you don't need to do that." Tony stuttered, and she could hear something akin to pain in his voice, like he was struggling no to let her know about it. "I'm not feeling too hot, don't come over, you'll probably catch something. I'll call you when I'm feeling better, okay? Listen, I gotta go." Pepper didn't get a chance to reply as the line went dead, signalling Tony had hung up. She jerked her head away from the phone and let out a disbelieving huff before turning the ignition and setting off towards Tony's. Like hell she was going to ignore this. He was up to something, and she wanted to know what.

She arrived at Tony's house within minutes, marching up to the front door and punching in her code to open the door. The main hall was quiet and after taking a breath, she headed for the stairs, readying herself for her worst fear with each step. She slowly crept towards Tony's bedroom, hovering for a moment outside his door when she reached it.

"…Tony, Jesus, sit still." A definitely female voice came from behind the door.

"Pepper's on the way, I gotta- ngh fuck." He cursed and Pepper had heard enough, opening the door and stepping through it. Natalie, Tony's assistant, was holding Tony's face in her hands, kneeling on his side of the bed, and as soon as she'd walked in, Tony had yanked the duvet up to his chest. He was clearly undressed under the duvet. "Pep." He squeaked, pushing Natalie away. "Um…it's not what you think."

Pepper, whose mouth had dropped open, shook her head and backed away, running out of the room and back down to her car, trying to hold in a sob as she heard Tony yelling for her. She'd been an idiot to trust him with everything, she should have listened to what she'd heard about him before giving herself to him, making herself believe he'd changed from the playboy he used to be.

She drove home, hardly able to see the road through the wave of tears sliding down her cheeks, and when she finally got home, she ran to the front door, dropping her keys as she fumbled at the door.

"Pepper!" a male voice called out behind her and she turned, wiping her eyes as she did so. "Are you okay?" Daniel was walking towards her.

"Daniel?" she sniffed, gazing at him questioningly. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"

Daniel shrugged and jogged up to her front porch. "Had some stuff to do. Are you crying?"

"I'm fine." Pepper shrugged him off and turned back to her door. "Listen, I'm glad to see you again, but I just can't deal with anyone right now. You should let the office know you're back."

"Well, I figured I could let you know first." He said with a grin. "Come on, let's go inside and talk."

Pepper shook her head and finally got her door open. "No, Daniel, I'm sorry, I can't-" her next words were muffled by a rag as Daniel covered her mouth with it, grabbing her around the waist and dragging her back to her car.

"Wasn't really asking." He huffed in her ear.

The last sound Pepper heard was the car door closing and Daniel laughing.


	9. Chapter 9

Sorry this took a while guys, I had to wait til I'd researched the next bit of the plot properly to write this. Also, as with most of my Extremis stories, I've slightly altered the format of the suit, I know he doesn't 'bleed' it. _Finally_ I have nothing against Irish people, I've got Irish relatives, I'm just working with a family stereotype. Apologies for the abrupt ending to this chapter, but everything will be explained in the next one!

* * *

"Well this is just fantastic." Tony growled, pacing the living room, phone pressed to his ear as he tried for the fifteenth time to call Pepper. "She probably thinks we're doing it, and now she's not picking up her phone. This is all your fault, you know." He pointed at Natasha, who rolled her eyes.

"You're the one who insisted on flying into a mountain." She sighed from where she sat on the couch, typing up a report on Tony's last mission. "Besides, she clearly can't trust you all that much if she so quickly put two and two together to come up with five."

"Shut up." He snarled, hanging up the phone and immediately dialling Pepper's number again. "I told you, something's wrong with the suit, I didn't fly into the damn mountain on purpose."

Natasha rolled her eyes again and closed the laptop, standing up. "How can something be wrong with the suit if you _are_ the suit?" she asked. "Didn't you say it's in your bone marrow or something?"

"Damn it." Tony sighed as Pepper's voice mail picked up yet again, shoving it angrily in his pocket. "Look, I don't know why it's behaving the way it is, you guys haven't given me much of a chance to do any diagnostics in a while."

"Well you'll have plenty of down time for the next few days." Natasha replied, glancing at her own phone. "Fury wants you in for a debrief and-"

"Hell no!" Tony said indignantly. "I've got to fix this mess with Pepper before it gets any worse! She's already ignoring my calls."

"Take it as a hint." Natasha suggested. "Look, this is a little more important than trying to get laid, Stark. Besides, you're not in any fit state to be going anywhere." She reached out and poked his ribs, causing Tony to fold instantly. "Hazards of flying into a mountain I guess."

"All the more reason not to go up to that flying ship of death." Tony huffed, arms wrapped around his ribs protectively. "Sorry, Nat, but this time there's something more important than the mission."

Natasha was just about to open her mouth and argue when Tony's phone rang and he jumped, fumbling in his pocket for it and glancing at the name.

"It's Pepper." He said, answering the call. "Pep, listen, what you saw before-"

"Ooh, this sounds juicy." A male voice that Tony knew all too well came through the receiver and Tony froze. "Tell me more, Anthony."

"How did you get Pepper's phone?" he asked, trying his level best to remain calm.

"Same way I got the woman herself, you know for a genius, you're not all that bright." The man laughed and sighed. "Ah, Tony, how I've missed our banter."

Tony's jaw tensed and anger flared inside him. Natasha noticed the change in his demeanour and tried to ask what was going on, but Tony brushed her off. "I swear to God, Hammer, if you even so much as touch her-"

"Oh yes! Here come the threats!" Justin Hammer laughed. "'I'll kill you, I'll beat you to a pulp, I'll take away everything you love', well guess what Tony?" Tony heard a definitely female whimper come from the background and Justin laughed again. "I'm going to get there first this time. Pepper will die here, now, unless you hand over your suits and your tech."

Tony was panicking now. He ran a hand through his hair and looked helplessly at Nat. "You know that'll never happen, Hammer." He said.

"I thought you might say that." Justin sighed. "Shaun, go ahead and pick a finger to break." He said to someone else, and before Tony knew what was happening, Pepper screamed.

"Hammer!" Tony yelled, but Justin interrupted him with a manic laugh.

"You've got a choice, Anthony! Do you want an empty life, or a meaningful death?" Justin hissed before hanging up the phone. Tony pulled his away from his ear, staring at it in shock.

"Hammer has Pepper." He mumbled before Natasha had a chance to ask. "He wants my suits. He's hurting her."

Natasha was typing away furiously at her laptop. "I've traced him…back at his old warehouse. Original." She looked up at him. "This is a trap, you know that right?"

Tony nodded. "I'm not leaving her there."

"You're sure as hell not taking any tech over there either." Natasha snapped, standing up. "A lot more is at stake here that your girlfriend. If Hammer gets his hands on our tech-"

"_My_ tech, I think you'll find." Tony growled, squaring up to her. "You've got a damn nerve, Nat. How many times have you put Barton before the mission, hmm?" he smiled inwardly when Natasha's lip twitched, a sure sign he was getting to her. "And you're preaching to me?"

Natasha glared at him, but instead of responding verbally, she reached out and poked his ribs again, making him fold over again and yell in pain. "You're not exactly in a fit state to be doing anything heroic." She spat. "You need to report to base, and we'll handle this."

Tony shook his head and looked up at her, panting. "Make me." He growled and straightened up. Before Natasha could do anything, Tony was encased in armour, it having flared out of nowhere, and within seconds he'd blasted off through a hatch in the ceiling, headed straight for Hammer's warehouse. "Jarvis, I think its Last Resort time." He said to his AI as Hammer Industries came into view.

"Very good, sir. Dialling now." Jarvis replied and dialled a number. The inbuilt phone rang a few times before a familiar voice answered.

"I need your help." Tony said. "I wouldn't call unless I was desperate."

The other voice laughed. "Well that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Tony slowed down his flight path to a stop, hovering about a mile from Hammer Industries as Jarvis scanned the building. "Look, can we just put the past behind us? Hammer's back. He's…he's taken my girl…I need your help, man. Please?" he begged. "Please, I can't do this alone. I can't lose her."

The man on the phone sighed and Tony waited anxiously for an answer.

"I'm still keeping the suit."

* * *

Tony landed outside the warehouse a few minutes later. It was desolate, SHIELD having removed everything of worth when Justin was imprisoned after the Expo disaster. Several big warehouses stood in the yard, but Jarvis had tracked the signal from Hammer's call to one specific one, the largest. Jarvis had cleared the area of any weapons, but he was still wary.

"Hammer! Get out here!" Tony bellowed through the loudspeaker. There was silence for a moment before the warehouse doors slid open, creaking heavily. Tony waited a few moments until the door was properly open and a man stepped out into the light. Tony blanched and stared at him in shock. "Daniel?" he asked, bewildered.

"It's Shaun, actually." Shaun replied with a smile. "Mr Hammer told me to show you in, he's entertaining a guest at the moment. Oh, and if you could strip out of the armour, that'd be great." He waited for a moment and when Tony made no move to do as asked, he shrugged. "I could always ask Pepper to persuade you?"

At the mention of Pepper's name, rage flared inside Tony, but he instructed the armour to recede and stood before Shaun in his shirt and jeans.

"Good boy." Shaun said, beckoning him inside. "Right this way, Mr Stark." He instructed, getting Tony to walk a few feet ahead of him as he pulled out a gun. "For security reasons, you understand." He said, jabbing the gun in Tony's back to get him moving. They walked further into the warehouse and through another door leading into the main section, a huge open space. Weirdly, but completely Hammer's style, he had a dining table set up in the middle of the room, white cloth and all. Pepper was sitting in a chair, tied to it with a full plate of food in front of her. Hammer was half way through his own meal and made a pleased noise when he spotted Tony.

"Tony!" he said jovially, wiping his mouth with a napkin and standing up. "Tony Stark, nice of you to come on such short notice." He walked up to Tony and looked at Shaun. "Is he clean?"

Shaun blinked and then cleared his throat, to which Hammer sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Shaun, you always, _always_ pat them down!" he spat. "Come on! Sorry about this." He said to a baffled Tony as Shaun quickly patted him down, checking for weapons. "He's Irish, what can I say? Please, come sit down, take a load off." He led Tony over to the table and pushed him into the chair, taking his own seat while Shaun tied Tony's hands behind the chair. Tony gave Pepper a look and swallowed. She was bedraggled, hair a mess, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

"You okay?" he asked softly. Pepper nodded and forced a smile.

"This is nice, isn't it?" Hammer asked, starting on his meal again. "Us three together." He smiled up at Tony as he chewed and then looked at Pepper. "You haven't touched your meal, Virginia. Something wrong?"

Pepper swallowed and glared at Justin. "Sorry, I'm not used to being kidnapped, it must have done something to my appetite."

Justin laughed loudly at this, coughing slightly as some food went down the wrong hole. "Oh, Virginia, Shaun's told me about your sense of humour. He's also told me a lot of other things, but we can talk about that once I've finished with Tony here, hmm?" he smirked and reached out to brush Pepper's hair from her face.

"Don't you fucking touch her." Tony snarled, looking at Hammer like he'd love nothing more than to rip his head off.

"Ooh, aren't you a feisty one?" Justin chuckled. "I think you'll find that I can do whatever I want to Pepper, and she'll let me, won't you?" he turned back to Pepper and grabbed her hair, yanking it back hard so that she let out a cry of pain.

"You're about five seconds away from me tearing these cuffs off and ripping you to shreds." Tony growled, to which Justin laughed again.

"I'd _love_ to see you try, Anthony." He said quietly, staring Tony down.

"You asked for it." Tony sighed and focussed all his energy into activating the suit.

Justin laughed and released Pepper for a moment to cross his arms over his chest. "Oh, this'll be good. Watch this, Pep." He nudged her shoulder and she jerked away from him. They both watched as Tony closed his eyes for a few seconds…and then opened them in confusion. "Something wrong, Anthony? Performance anxiety, perhaps?" he slammed his fist on the table, causing Pepper and Tony to jump. "Nope! You're just not as smart as me!" he barked out a laugh and stood up, grabbing the back of Pepper's chair, tipping her back and dragging her along the floor. "You see, Tony, I've been doing a lot of thinking while I was in jail, and when I broke out of jail, and it all revolved around you, isn't that nice?" he let go of Pepper's chair when they were a good distance away from the table and he turned to face Tony again. "I managed to pick up a few more contacts, including Shaun here, and we've been working _very_ hard." He clicked his fingers and Shaun tossed him a small touchscreen device. "We discovered your little secret, about Iron Man, spoiler alert!" he yelled and looked over at Pepper. "Not really a bodyguard!" he jammed his thumb against the screen in his hands and Tony's entire body immediately went rigid. "You see, Pepper, Tony here has been keeping a pretty big secret from you, naughty boy." He pressed another part of the screen and Tony's arms snapped out to the side, breaking free of his handcuffs with a yell of pain. "Oops, teething problems." He shrugged and tried again, making Tony stand up. "There we go. What's the line Tony? 'I am Iron Man'?" he tapped the screen a final time and the armour flared all around Tony at once, encasing him inside it. Justin grinned manically and Pepper gasped, staring in disbelief as the man she'd come to know so well, turned out to be someone else entirely.

"Tony?" she breathed.

"Surprise!" Justin yelled in glee, pressing random parts of the screen and making Tony react to it like a puppet on a string. "Hang on…hang on…there we go." He retracted the armour around Tony's face and made him hover forwards towards them, hands plastered to his sides. "Have I ruined the mystery between you?" he asked, chuckling as he pocketed the device and walked over to Pepper, untying her hands. "See, Tony here isn't your regular run of the mill superhero, oh no! He figured out that suits, actual big bulky metal suits, they can be stolen, damaged, but a suit that is built into you? Into your DNA? That's pretty much indestructible, right Tony?" he grabbed Pepper's arm and yanked her to her feet before walking over to Tony and rapping his knuckles against the metal of Tony's head. "Only problem with that being the updates are a little trickier, you gotta wire _yourself_ into the system. And that's what our Anthony did! He backed up his entire _brain_! And you know what? I've got it all right here." He pulled out the touchscreen device again and waved it around. "See, the problem with using a computer is, no matter how tough your security, they can be hacked, and unfortunately for you Tony, my man, Shaun is a nerd. A big nerd. The nerdiest nerd to ever nerd." He laughed at his own joke. "Shaun hacked into your brain data, Tony. He hacked it, and we hacked you." He pressed the screen again and Tony's arm started to rise, pointing at Pepper.

"No!" Tony yelled, seeing what Hammer was doing and trying his best to stop himself raising his arm as Pepper started trembling with fear. "No, Hammer! You said you'd let her go!"

Hammer frowned and turned to Tony, then to Pepper. "Did I? Did I say I'd let you go? Shaun?"

"Don't think you did, boss." Shaun said with a smirk.

"No, didn't think I did." He shook his head and made Tony raise his arm again. "Pretty sure I said she'd die unless you handed over your suits and your tech, and I'm also pretty sure I don't see all your suits or all your tech, so…" he shrugged and smiled as Tony's hand aimed at Pepper.

"You think he's gonna keep you around now, Shaun?" Tony asked, trying with all his might to lower his arm again. "You served your purpose, Hammer's not exactly nostalgic."

Shaun laughed softly. "Mr Hammer and I have an arrangement, Mr Stark, but thanks for your concern."

"Yeah, about that." Justin sighed, turning to Shaun. "I'm gonna have to rescind our deal, if you don't mind." He smiled at Shaun, whose mouth opened in shock.

"Pardon?!" Shaun asked incredulously. "You what? No, no you can't do that! We made a deal, a deal you need to stick to if you want me to help you!"

Justin shook his head and pressed the touchscreen, causing Tony to spin around so his arm was pointing at Shaun instead. "You did help me, Shaun. But I don't need you any more. You're fired." And with that, Justin flicked the screen and Tony's gauntlet fired, blasting Shaun with a direct hit to the chest and sending him flying across the room, crashing into the wall on the other side with a clang. Pepper screamed and covered her mouth with her hands, crying again as she watched Shaun killed in front of her.

"No!" Tony yelled as he was spun back around to face Pepper. "No, Hammer, please, I'm begging you-"

"Shush!" Hammer bellowed, glaring at Tony. "You destroyed everything I'd worked for! All I ever wanted was to be your equal, to have people look up to me the way they look up to you, but you couldn't handle that, could you Tony?" Justin was seething now, barely containing his rage. "Now you're gonna know what it feels like to lose everything!" he tapped the screen and Tony lunged forward grabbing Pepper around the waist and pressing his gauntlet to Pepper's head. She let out a cry of desperation and shook with sobs. "Say goodbye, Tony."

He could feel Pepper's hands trembling as they grasped at his waist, staring up at him. "Pepper, listen to me." He mumbled, trying to get her attention as she shivered. "Someone's coming to help, okay? You'll be safe, but I need you to know…" he closed his eyes and swallowed. "I love you."

"Aww, how touching." Hammer sneered, laughing as Pepper's reaction to Tony's words stopped her crying. "But you'll never find out if he was really telling the truth, what a shame." And with that, Justin flicked his screen again.

There was a pause, and then a terrifying scream. But the scream came from Tony. Justin stepped back, startled as Tony kept screaming. He flicked the screen again, jabbed at it with his finger but nothing happened. Finally, somehow Tony managed to wrench his hand away from Pepper's head, flattening it to his side again. His chest heaved and he gave Pepper one last look before crumpling to the floor, armour disappearing as fast as it had appeared on his body. Pepper gasped and crashed to her knees beside him, trying to revive him.

"Tony!" she screamed, shaking his shoulders, tears dripping from her eyes.

"What the fuck?!" Justin bellowed. "That's not fair! That's not _fair_!" he launched his device across the room with an angry yell, pacing around Tony. "He shut himself down, he killed himself. That was my job!" he ran over and kicked Tony's lifeless body before running over to Shaun and grabbing the gun from his limp hand, aiming it at Pepper as he stormed back over. "You make sure you let him know that this is his fault!" he screamed, pulling back the hammer on the gun, but before he could fire there was a tremendous crash, and another suit of armour burst into the room, black and grey in colour with an enormous turret on one shoulder, and very recognizable to Hammer. Pepper shrank away and grabbed onto Tony, trying desperately to revive Tony.

"What up, Hammer?" the new suit greeted.

Justin shook his head and raised the gun again, firing at the suit. "No!" Justin bellowed, growing angrier as the bullets merely bounced off the suit. "No!"

"Yup." The suit said cheerfully before it raised its arm and fired the gauntlet right into Justin's chest, sending him flying across the room much like Tony's had done to Shaun. Justin landed with a thump on the ground, skidding a few yards before coming to a rest in a smoking pile, dead.

"Dang." The suit said, lowering its arm and lifting its faceplate to reveal someone Pepper recognised from a very long time ago. "I've been waiting a long time to do that."

"James!" Pepper gasped. "Oh my God, you have to help me!" she had Tony's head cradled in her lap and he wasn't moving. Rhodey jumped into action, striding over and picking Tony up, throwing him over his shoulder and leading Pepper out of the warehouse. "What's going on?" Pepper asked, totally confused as she followed him. "Is he going to be okay? He just…he crumpled, what happened to him? Justin said he shut down-"

"Pepper, you gotta calm down." Rhodey said before frowning and turning his head towards her. "It is Pepper, right? He wasn't pulling my leg?"

Pepper shook her head and then gasped as military vehicles appeared in the distance, speeding towards them.

"Ugh, he's not gonna like this when he wakes up." Rhodey sighed.


	10. Chapter 10

Okay! So this is the last chapter in this three year long saga. There will be an epilogue, but the story is now wrapped up and done, and all I can say is thank you so much for sticking with it, for bugging me constantly to update, and for still reviewing after I made you guys wait three damn years. I promise never to do it again!

* * *

Pepper was pacing, something she did very rarely when she was upset or frightened and could do absolutely nothing about it. After Rhodey had turned up and saved the day, he'd carried Tony's lifeless body outside with Pepper in tow and dumped him in the first vehicle that skidded to a halt, which sped off again as soon as the door had closed. Men and women in black suits and sunglasses jumped out of the surrounding ones and Rhodey was taken to one side by a tall black man wearing a trench coat and an eye patch. To Pepper's dismay, Tony's assistant Natalie stepped out of one of the cars and walked straight towards her. She'd managed to convince Pepper to get into one of the vehicles with her which also sped off, and after half an hour of driving in the dark – the windows were tinted – they arrived at what appeared to be a military base of some kind. Pepper had been led down a multitude of corridors and left in a room that held a desk and two chairs, and that's when the pacing began. She'd been in too much shock to even ask about Tony during the drive, but now the weight of what had happened was baring down on her. Tony could be dead for all she knew, and now she was apparently being held captive by the Men in Black.

She was on lap thirty-five when the door finally opened again and – joy of joys – Natalie walked in, holding a folder and smiling.

"Pepper, sorry to keep you waiting." She apologised, motioning for her to take a seat as she did herself, laying the folder on the desk in front of her. "I expect you're wondering what the hell happened today?"

"The thought had crossed my mind." Pepper mumbled as she sat down, wrapping her arms around herself. "Didn't realise Tony had a pay-by-the-day policy for his women."

Natalie raised an eyebrow but inclined her head. "Maybe we should start with introductions first so we don't continue on the wrong foot. You know me as Natalie, my real name is Natasha Romanoff, I'm a SHIELD agent, I was shadowing Tony last year and I'm now stationed to help him on certain missions which we'll get to in a moment, but we have never, ever slept together, okay?" without waiting for an answer, she slid the folder over to Pepper and clasped her hands in front of her on the desk. "This folder is Iron Man's entire history, and how it includes Tony. By showing you, I'm endangering all three of you, but I figure you've been through enough to warrant the knowledge."

Pepper stared at her for a moment before opening the folder. Inside were pictures of Tony, Iron Man, files on both, but nothing Pepper could make sense of. One picture in particular though of Tony, caught her eye, and she realised that the night they'd spent together, he'd kept his shirt on, even to sleep. The picture of Tony she was looking at showed him with a mysterious blue glow coming from underneath his shirt.

"I thought you might notice that." Natasha said. "That's where it all starts really; Tony's kidnap." She reached across and grabbed one of the pictures of a bearded, bald man with the words 'DECEASED' stamped across his face. "Obadiah Stane had been dealing Stark weapons to terrorist organisations for years, but it only really came to Tony's notice after his kidnap, the kidnap that Stane arranged. During the fight to capture Tony, he was injured and required surgery performed by this man, Ho Yinsen," she showed Pepper another picture of a man wearing glasses with the same stamp across his face. "Dr Yinsen implanted a rudimentary electro magnet in Tony's chest which kept the shrapnel near his heart from piercing it. Eventually Tony managed to perform an upgrade using Arc Reactor technology and the Mark I was born." She showed Pepper pictures of the Mark I suit and the Reactor that was apparently implanted in Tony's chest. "That was how he escaped, he and Dr Yinsen built the Mark I suit and Tony managed to fly out of there. Unfortunately Dr Yinsen didn't make it. Tony then went on to find out about Stane's treachery and that his designs for the Mark I suit had been stolen to create Stane's very own suit, Warmonger. There was a fight, Tony won, and Stane was eliminated. We told the press that Iron Man was Tony's bodyguard as a cover." Natasha finished simply. "Any questions so far?"

Pepper shook her head and Natasha nodded, taking away the pictures of Stane, Yinsen and Warmonger and replacing them with mug shots of Justin Hammer, Shaun and another man. Pepper's jaw clenched at the sight of the men that had held her captive but she looked up at Natasha for an explanation.

"Justin Hammer, Shaun Casey aka Daniel Dowling, Ivan Vanko." She began, pushing Justin and Ivan's pictures forwards. "About two years ago, Justin Hammer recruited Vanko to build a replica of the Iron Man suit for the Expo Tony had set up. What he didn't know was that Vanko had a history with the Stark family. Both their father's had worked together years ago on the original Arc Reactor, but Anton was a bad boy, and Howard removed him from the project and he defected to Russia. He lived out the rest of his life in a bitter, vodka induced rage, something he passed down to his son. He told Ivan that he should be in Tony's place, and Ivan took that on board. Unfortunately, Justin was too much of a dumbass to really see what Ivan was doing and when Ivan stole all of the suits, turned them into drones and basically wrecked the entire Expo, he was surprised to say the least." She shook her head and picked up Ivan's picture, swapping it for Shaun's. "Ivan didn't survive the ensuing fight, and Justin was thrown in jail. And that's where Shaun Casey comes in." she tapped his picture. "Justin met Shaun in jail. He grew up in Ireland surrounded by members of the IRA, joined them when he was too young to realise what he was getting in to, and eventually wound up over here, rotting in jail. When Justin got out, Shaun offered to help him get back at Tony in exchange for Justin getting him out of jail, and that's where you came in."

Pepper raised her eyebrows, trying to take it all in. "Why me though?" she asked. "What's so special about me? And where do you come in to all this anyway?"

Natasha sighed and gathered up all the documents, filing them back in the folder. "As I said, I was ordered to shadow Tony during the Expo. We'd got wind that he was…he was sick. The Reactor he'd built was slowly poisoning him, and we tried to help him. We gave him treatments, and the tools he needed to build a new one, and he did. He's fine now. Better than fine. I'll let him fill in the details, he's kept this one pretty close to his chest, but you…Pepper, you're probably the most important thing in his world. He used to talk about you, mostly when he was drunk." She smiled apologetically. "But he'd have these moments of clarity, I should probably be letting him tell you this, but he'd talk about you like he'd had this revelation, like you were the answer to all his problems." She shrugged. "He's head over heels in love with you, even I can see that."

Pepper chewed her lip, still very confused about everything, but beginning to thaw out a little about Tony. He'd said it himself, before he'd collapsed, he'd told her he loved her, but she still wasn't sure.

"What happened in the warehouse?" she asked eventually. "He just collapsed, is he okay?"

Natasha nodded with a smile. "I was getting worried that you wouldn't ask about him at all. He's fine. I don't know the exact mechanics behind what he did, but he's fine. I can take you to his room if you want? He's awake now." At Pepper's nod, Natasha led her back through the maze of corridors, up a few floors in an elevator and down yet another corridor until they reached Tony's 'suite'. "I'll leave you two alone, you probably have a bit of talking to do." She smiled and swiped her access card before turning back the way she'd come. Pepper watched her go before taking a deep breath and pushing the door to Tony's suite open.

The inside of the suite was much like Tony's home back in Malibu, stylish but not flashy, and Pepper felt at home immediately. She wondered briefly if Tony himself had designed it or merely used the same architect, but knowing Tony's skills at pretty much anything he attempted, she suspected the former. Pepper heard voices and the sound of two men's laughter coming from behind a closed door at the other end of the lounge area, and seeing as the kitchen was to one side of her, she guessed that to be Tony's bedroom. She cautiously stepped closer and knocked on the door, opening it when Tony's gruff voice told her to come in. The first thing she spotted was Rhodey, leaning casually against Tony's dresser, now out of his armour and wearing a military jumpsuit, but Pepper's eyes were drawn swiftly to Tony, who was lying on his bed, shirtless and wearing sweatpants, and what was apparently his Arc Reactor glowing brightly in the centre of his chest. She swallowed and smiled nervously at the both of them, and Rhodey cleared his throat.

"Well, I'd love to stay and help cut the atmosphere, but I figure it's nothing to do with me so…enjoy!" he said jovially, leaning over to shake Tony's hand for a moment before walking towards Pepper. "Pep, it was great seeing you again. Hopefully next time you're not being held captive."

"Finger's crossed." She replied, silently thanking him for breaking the ice. "Thank you, Rhodey, I didn't get to say it before." She hesitated for a moment before standing on her toes and hugging him tightly. Rhodey blinked but hugged her back briefly until Tony chirped up.

"Hey, you gonna steal something else of mine?" he jibed, to which Rhodey rolled his eyes and pulled back.

"Good luck." He mumbled to Pepper before winking and departing, closing the door behind him. Pepper watched him go, trying to delay the inevitable. She didn't know what to say to him, what to ask first, if she was even allowed to ask, so she decided to break the ice with a mutual topic as she turned back to him.

"So, you're talking again?" she asked, referring to Tony and Rhodey.

Tony nodded and pressed his palms into the mattress of his bed to aid him in sitting up. "Yeah, we reconciled." He said. "Couldn't really stay mad at him after he saved you using the thing I was mad at him for."

Pepper nodded and bit her lip, looking around his room. "So that's what he stole?" she asked. "That suit?" at his nod and pursed her lips. "But if that was yours, how come yours…you know…" she wafted her hand at him. Tony smiled and raised his hand, summoning the armour.

"You mean how come mine bleeds out?" he asked. "I was injected with a virus called Extremis a few years ago. I was dying, a friend of mine had created this techno-virus that would basically repair me, but at the same time alter my DNA to 'perfect' me. It basically zoned in on the repair centre of my brain and cranked everything up to 100%, so I can self-heal, I can recover stamina in seconds…you kind of experienced that the other night." He waggled his eyebrows but seeing that Pepper wasn't exactly in a playful mood, he went back to the topic at hand. "Okay, um…well apart from the healing stuff, I'm kind of hard wired into the Iron Man suit. This one I can bleed out, others I can summon to me or control from a distance. That's kind of what you saw at the factory." He paused for a moment. "If I show you something kind of gross, will you freak out?"

Pepper's eyes widened but she shook her head, stepping closer as Tony turned his head to reveal circular ports in the back of his neck, just under his hair line. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand but managed to keep calm. "I'm basically part machine. I control all of it, it's not an issue, but it's still who I am. There was an incident a few years back and essentially I had to delete some of my memories to stop them being stolen, and Hammer somehow downloaded those memories and managed to hack into me." He sighed and turned back to Pepper, making the ports disappear. "The only option I had left yesterday was to shut my entire system down to stop him trying to make me…" his words caught in his throat and he coughed gently. "I'd called Rhodey, I knew he was coming, and I wasn't about to try and fight myself. The choices were kill you, or potentially kill myself." He shrugged. "Wasn't much of a choice, you know?" he gave her a lopsided smile, which slipped after she didn't say or do anything. "You okay?" he asked.

Pepper nodded. And then shook her head. "I just don't…" she sighed and covered her face with her hands before smoothing her hair back and gazing at him. "It's a lot to take in. And we haven't even gotten to your fancy night light."

Tony looked down at his Arc Reactor and let out a short laugh, tapping it gently. "Yeah, good thing I kept my shirt on huh? I can only imagine what your reaction would have been." He looked back up at her and sighed heavily. "You have no idea how terrified I was today. I could have lost you."

Pepper swallowed and walked around to the side of the bed, sitting down at his side. "You didn't seem too bothered about me when Natasha was coming out of your room." Tony winced and cleared his throat.

"Yeah, yeah that looked bad, I admit that." He sighed. "Pepper, there is nothing going on with me and Natasha. There never has been and never will be. You're the only woman in a long, long time, and…" he screwed up all his remaining courage and leant forward, cupping her cheek. "I meant what I said to you before I shut down. I love you, Pepper. I've been in love with you for a long time, and I will continue to do so even if you never speak to me again, but don't do it for the wrong reasons. I'm trouble, you knew that about me when you first met me, you remember that don't you?" he sighed and smiled. "You saved my damn life years ago, and you did it again when you walked into that coffee shop all those months ago. I've waited for you for so long, and if you need to make me wait again, then that's fine, but it's you, Pepper, it's always been you, and it always will be you."

Pepper stared at him throughout his speech and sighed shakily once he'd finished, reaching up to entwine her fingers with the hand on her cheek, bringing it into her lap. "I'm scared. You think you were terrified today? You didn't have to watch me die, but I had to watch you." She shook her head. "I don't know if I can go through that again."

Tony nodded and squeezed her fingers. "I don't want you to go through that again either, and I'll try my best to make sure neither of us do." He shrugged. "That's all I can promise you. I have a lot of responsibilities, but you're top of the list." He kissed her knuckles and gazed up at her pleadingly. "Please, Pepper, just give me a chance."

Pepper sighed and shook her head for a moment before smiling at him. "I must be insane." She mumbled to herself, leaning in and kissing him soundly. Tony grunted in surprise but soon caught up, hand raising to her cheek as he kissed her back. He smiled against her lips, sighing heavily as a weight left his shoulders.

"So I take that as a yes then?" he mumbled, chuckling as Pepper nodded and wrapped her arms around him. "Hey, watch the ribs, I flew into a mountain."

"Of course you did."


End file.
